I see a lot of sales pitches and read a ton of marketing messages in my line of work and I feel like so often there is one main reason that our offers are not converting. So, it doesn’t matter whether your offer is for a free lead magnet or a paid product, if you fix this one issue then you will be so much more successful. I’ll tell you what that is, right after this.
So, in one of my masterminds recently, we’ve been discussing our offers. People have been throwing their offers and offer ideas out to the group for feedback, and very often it seems like the offer is sort of a word salad.
I get that it’s sometimes hard to articulate what you do and how you help people. It’s something I hear often with my clients. Many times they have had a business going for several years and it’s been ok, but they still talk in really generic terms about how they help people.
The more I immerse myself in marketing, marketing language, marketing copy, and surround myself with world class marketers, the easier this flaw is to spot.
So what is this falw I’m referring to?
In business and in marketing, you need to build around one BIG idea.
And to be honest, when you first start your business, you may have a BIG idea at the time, but soon the marketplace is flooded with everyone else doing the same thing and you have to change your BIG idea.
When I started Team Podcast, I started it because I could not find the company that I wanted to hire to work on my podcast.
At that time, in 2012, there were no one-stop-shops where you could get all the post production done on your podcast for one price.
There was a company, called Podfly, that was sort of working in that direction, but I couldn’t stand the parameters they put around the length of your audio files and how many “um” removals would be included in your package before you got an extra charge.
So when I started, my one BIG idea was doing all the post production on a podcast for one price per episode, and not nickel and dime-ing my customers with every little thing that other companies were doing.
Fast forward to nearly 10 years later and almost every podcast production company has that model now. So, even though I was ahead of the curve at the time, my BIG idea from 10 years ago is no longer a BIG idea.
I’ve told you about how I got a virtual punch in the gut from a client that led me down the path of marketing and monetizing podcasts, so now my BIG idea isn’t just that we will produce podcasts like everyone else is doing, but we will also work with podcasters to help monetize their podcasts.
It takes a completely different skill set to learn the marketing skills to monetize a podcast, and I’ve spent the last almost 4 years now investing heavily in earning my marketing chops.
The result is that now I won’t launch another podcast that isn’t going to be monetized. And I know how and when I will pull the levers of monetization.
Why is it so important to have a BIG idea?
There are several reasons, but let me highlight the most important ones:
- The marketplace is more crowded than ever! With social media, online access and 24 hour TV consumption, your ideal customers are bombarded with more ads per day than ever before. Your BIG idea will help you stand out in the crowded marketplace.
- Your customers have a shorter attention span than ever. Face it, we live in an instant gratification age. Consumers no longer have the attention span to make it through a long sales cycle, or for it to take months for them to get their problems solved.
- Improvement offers no longer capture your customers. Your customers are looking for transformation and if you can’t provide it, someone else will.
- Generalists are out and specialists are in. You’ve heard that “riches are in the niches” and every business has to niche down to survive in this market. Pick one sub-niche of your niche and find an area where you provide transformation. When you have an offer that works, go all in on that one offer.
In some of the training I am going through in Russell Brunson’s mastermind, we’ve talked extensively about creating a tight niche.
One of my coaches says to “carve out a niche so tight that only you fit in it!”
One of the things carving out a niche that only you fit in requires on our part is to really understand who we serve inside and out.
I’m not just talking about who the person you serve is. I’m talking way deeper than that.
I’m talking about their needs and desires, what have they already tried and failed at, who are they currently turning to for help and tons of other really specific knowledge you need to have about your “who”.
The reality is that you have to really love the “who” you are serving in order to create a real transformation.
Let me give you an idea of some questions you should get clear on about your “who” that will enable you to come up with your BIG idea.
I’m going to assume that you already have a pretty good idea of who your “who” is, so I’ll pick up there.
What are their problems?
What are their concerns?
What do they want? I’m not talking about what do they think they want, I’m talking about what do they really want.
You’ve probably heard about the guy who walks into the hardware store needing to purchase a ¾ inch drill bit. It might seem obvious that this guy WANTS a ¾ inch drill bit. I mean, hello, Captain Obvious, right?
But actually, a ¾ inch drill bit is not at all what that guy wants. What he really wants is a ¾ inch hole.
See what I mean about getting below the surface? And the more you do this and know your who intimately, the better you can come up with your BIG Idea.
What does your who want to avoid at all costs? Part of your BIG idea could be helping them avoid that!
What fears are already present in your who?
What do they love?
What do they hate or despise?
What are they already spending their money on?
Where are they currently spending their money?
What do they do for fun? Where do they hang out in real life?
What books are they reading?
What are some of their core beliefs?
What are their blind spots?
Where are they stuck?
Who is presently letting them down?
What industries or companies are currently failing them?
What old models, methods or systems are failing them?
What lies are they believing?
Who else is loving your who well?
How aware is your who of the problem you want to solve for them?
Is your who already looking for solutions?
What else has my who already tried?
This is literally just a short list of questions that you need to be able to answer about your who. There are so many more that can be answered to help you get inside the mind of your who.
It may seem overwhelming to think about all of these things, but it can be catastrophic to your business to ignore them.
Your who is looking for a transformation in one specific area and it is up to you to carve out a niche just small enough that you are the only one that fits in it.
Don’t try to model what you are doing after what your competitors are doing. Most of the time they are just winging it anyway. They are so entrenched in what has always been done that they probably aren’t willing to change even if their customers ask them to.
In creating your BIG idea, you are in effect creating a movement. In creating transformation for your audience, you are giving them a new identity to embrace. The more you can get your audience to embrace their new identity and the transformation you are offering them, the more successful your business will be.
Most of us don’t think BIG enough when we are creating our BIG idea.
But my friends, we are the entrepreneurs, we are the change makers. We are the ones who don’t settle for the status quo.
We are the ones who break the rules, because we know the rules only exist to serve other people and not our who.
We are the ones who can bring transformation to the lives of our who if we can only get our heads around our BIG idea.
It’s not enough to educate people. Yes, education is good, but it isn’t motivating enough to cause your who to take action.
Helping people with a problem isn’t enough. Your who could go broke trying to get “help” from every gurus who can only get them a little further down the line.
In order to be successful, you must be willing to think big enough and implement fast enough to create a transformational journey that your who will go on with you.
And let me be real with you about this. Most of the time when we as entrepreneurs and problem solvers don’t think BIG enough to create a transformational experience for our who, it is because we are afraid!
We fear calling our shot and having to live up to the transformational standard we promised our who.
We don’t believe in ourselves enough to make waves in our industry.
We are scared to put ourselves out there and open ourselves up to scrutiny and ridicule.
We don’t want to be disruptive because we are worried about our competition coming after us.
Let me tell you this:
If you create enough transformations, no one will listen to the naysayers.
If you change enough lives, you’ll create so many evangelists for your program that you won’t have to fend off attacks because they will do it for you.
If you truly love your who enough, you will be willing to transform your own life so that you can keep transforming theirs.
And this is the point at which you stop chasing money and you start chasing impact.
And the more impact you achieve, the more money you will receive.
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