"How To" Monetize Knowledge & Experience

I got some great feedback by email on my last blog about using online sales campaigns to increase your sales. Included with this feedback were some questions I will take the time to answer today.

• When considering product strategy, what are some alternatives for monetizing information/content products & programs?
• How do I get started creating content products & programs?

These are some alternatives for you to consider for leveraging information/content products and programs:

1. Provide VALUE (free) as part of your selling process to your prospects to more quickly build trust and rapport so they will want to buy your core products/services.
2. Bundle content products & programs with your core product/service packages to add value and increase sales of your core product/service packages.
3. Create new revenue streams from the sales of content products & programs.
4. Create internal training programs and systems for onboarding staff into new roles.

Once you build the creation of content products and programs into your operating processes (this is not hard), you will identify other ways aside from the 4 alternatives above to consider when setting strategies.

I will now take a few moments to address the other question .... How do I get started creating content products and programs?

Stay focused on the fact that people who are looking for advice and "how to" information always want the same thing. They want to shorten their learning curve. They want to get from Point A to Point B as fast and effectively as possible.

So ..... identify Point B .... begin with the end in mind .... what is the goal your target prospects/customers want to reach ... for example, what they want to learn ... want to achieve ... want to have .... and so on.

Once you identify the goals your prospects/customers want to reach, then breakdown the sequencial steps to get there. Take a high level approach initially to identifying these steps so you have 4 to 7 in total. This framework will begin to shape how to get from Point A to Point B. This begins to help you organize what you will teach/communicate for each part of your framework.

Let's use Steven Covey as an example. The approach he had great success with when he wrote his book. Many of you have read or have heard of his book ..... 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. When he began the planning process to write the book, he identified the outcome (Point B) people were reaching for as ... taking control of your life and becoming a highly effective person.

He then created the following step-by-step framework to get there:

1. Be Proactive
2. Begin With The End In Mind
3. Put First Things First
4. Think Win/Win
5. Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood
6. Synergize
7. Sharpen The Saw

Once he created the 7 steps to becoming an effective person, he began to organize all his thoughts around each of the steps in the framework ... he identified his main points, provided examples of each main point, told stories to demonstrate what he meant and then provided step-by-step directions on how to learn and apply each step in the framework.  This enabled people to learn more quickly and effectively. If you were to go back and look at his book, you will see he arranged his thoughts with this type of framework.

Stephen Covey then took his framework and created many different types of information products/programs. Of course the book was one. He went into corporations and taught people to train others within their companies. He created seminar programming. I could go on and on with the products he created around his framework, but I believe you get the "gist."

TAKE YOUR OWN STEPS TODAY.... leverage content products and programs to increase your sales ...... GET STARTED CREATING the products and programs you can provide your target prospects and customers to help them reach their goals and objectives. 

 
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Increase Your Sales Results

In my last blog, I mentioned I believe the new best practices for the online product marketing industry will find their way into the more traditional phone and face to face selling approaches. I received a number of email responses asking how I saw this working .... thought I would use this opportunity to communicate some of my thoughts.

As you target your prospects and start to think about what you will say in that 1st e-mail you draft when reaching out to them, consider planning out your own sales campaign. I won't take the time in this blog to discuss exactly what you should be saying as you communicate throughout the process of trying to get a sale. The sales psychology and "hooks" to address in communications is for another blog .... I will focus on what the sales campaign process might look like.

As a part of the process, I recommend you use video. Today's technology makes this very easy with virtually no cost to do so. Trust me ... this can be easily done....it can also be something you can use over and over in your selling process. 

Knowing how hard it is to reach someone by phone or in person in the early stages of the selling process, video provides you the fastest path to creating trust and rapport in your communications.

If the objective of a sales campaign is to sell an information product, I would create a sales campaign a certain way. In this blog, I am assuming you have a product or service that you are currently selling over the phone or in person and will continue to do so.

Consider an approach where you understand your buyer needs. If you want to clarify that for yourself, answer the following questions about your buyer.

1. What are the things you have learned that your prospects/customers should know and don't?
2. What are the things that frustrate your prospects/customers?
3. What terrifies your prospects/customers the most about what they do?
4. Most of your prospects/customers have no idea how to do ...... 
5. What are the questions your prospects/customers seem to always have?
6. What are the questions your prospects/customers should be asking and they are not yet asking?
7. What do your prospects/customers need to double the results they need to produce in their role?
8. How can you add more value for your prospects/customers?

As you think through your responses above, consider what topics would add value for your prospects/customers. These topics will begin to create your path to identifying what information you can provide your prospect that will help them with a challenge or obstacle they are facing. Now you package this information into a 3 part video series that you integrate into your sales campaign.  

1. Send email #1 with video #1 to your prospect ...
2. 2 or 3 days later, send email #2 with video #2 to your prospect ...
3. 2 or 3 days later, send email #3 with video #3 to your prospect ...
4. 2 or 3 days later, reach out with your 1st call.

Very important to remember .... don't try to sell your prospect anything in your 1st 3 emails & 3 videos. All you are doing is helping them with a challenge or obstacle they face regardless of whether or not they buy anything from you. You don't begin to sell until you make your connection by phone.

When you reach out for that 1st call, you will have already provided them real value in what you taught them in the video series .... as a sales professional told me over lunch today, "it sorta takes consultative selling to a whole new level."

Through the use of video, they have gotten to know you a little ... you have started to build some real rapport assuming your video was created with truly high value content to them ... addressing a real need they have.

You will tell them if the information you provided through the videos was of real value, you can help them even more through your products and services they can buy from you.   

There are effective ways to script your emails and video content that are important details for another time. Consider the sales campaign process at this point in time. There are no obstacles to implementing this approach. Today's technology platforms and video capture methods are easy to setup and can be managed right at your desk.

If you are a sales person responsible for your own sales results or playing a role in sales management & responsible for growing sales through your sales force, TAKE ACTION TODAY. 

You will find this online sales campaign approach will produce better results .... it will also create a buzz that will differentiate you in your market.

Good luck .... let me know if I can help!

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Discovering Your New Product Concept

I find myself thinking all the time what might a new idea or concept be that I could launch & build a business around. I am also asked the same by others ... "How can I identify an idea or concept to build a business around." Many of us are looking for that next opportunity we can launch!

My recommended approach is to consider the target audience you would like to serve. Gather information from those target customers. The information you learn from them will often create the path to identifying a new product or service they may be willing to pay for if you were to create it.

Here are some questions to ask and sentences to finish for use when gathering insights from your target audience. The insights you get from the people you talk with will leave you clues on what kind of products, programs and/or services you might consider creating.

Here goes ....

1. My target customers feel they are falling short in this area ....
2. Most of my target customers would pick a fight to protect the belief that ....
3. Most of my target customers have no idea how to .....
4. Most of my target customers have the goal to .....
5. Most of my target customers deeply value ....
6. Most of my target customers are terrified that ......
7. Most of my target customers are frustrated with these things .....
8. Most of my target customers are held back by these things ....
9. What are your target customers trying to accomplish this year? (learn this ......, master this ....., achieve this ....., have this ...., to be this ....., to feel this ...., to experience this lifestyle ...., avoid this forever ......
10. What do your target customers need to double the results they are responsible for in their business?
11. What strategies have your target customers tried to improve their desired outcomes? What has worked? What has not worked?
12. What do your target customers search (google) for ..... topics and key words?
13. What do your target customers hate to do?
14. What do your target customers love to do?
15. What do your target customers pay good money for?
16. What are the 10 questions (FAQs) your target customers seem to always have?
17. What are the 10 questions your target customers should be asking and they are not yet asking?
18. How can you add more value for your target customers and make their lives more interesting?

After gathering all the above information from your target customers, ask yourself what products, programs or services you could create that would be perceived as high value by your target customers. Would they be willing to pay for them?

Take action now to learn these customer insights and you will be 1 step closer to identifying that new product idea or concept you can get excited about! 

Let me know any comments or questions you have in the comment section below. I will respond just as soon as I can!

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How Do Low Cost Competitors Play the Game

Are you facing low cost competitors in your markets? 

Do you have a good understanding of how they operate? 

Are you exploring adjustments in how you operate in order to compete effectively?

Thinking about your answers to the following questions may help you identify some strategies you should be considering:

1. Are there opportunities for you, or new competitors, to radically change the business model in your industry or in a segment of it?
2. Have you reviewed your value propositions recently? Are they still relevant to your targeted customer segments? Or...... have they become out of date as a result of changes in customer needs and competitive developments?
3. Have you added unnecessary complexity and cost to you business over recent years? Do you have brands, products, product variants (sizes, flavors, colors, grades, etc) in your product suite that no longer meet real customer needs & are not truly valued by customers? Are you providing services that are not needed or valued? Would it make sense to bundle or unbundle some of your offerings so you can offer customers a solution that better fits needs and perhaps reduced the complexity of your business at the same time?
4. Do your marketing communications convey your value proposition effectively or might another approach be more effective?
5. Are you being innovative enough in controlling your costs? Are there ways you could make a "step-change" reduction in your costs? Could you move significant activities to other players in your value chain ...... perhaps even reconfiguring your value chain......who might be able to manage them more efficiently and possibly even more effectively?
6. Could you benefit from being less customer driven? Are you listening too much to your customers .... or to the wrong customers..... and responding too much to their articulated needs that may not be well thought through? Are your customers always right? Should you perhaps try to lead them to new offers, that in the long run may deliver more value and/or lower costs to both of you? If your current customers are not interested, are there other segments of existing users, or potential new users, who might be interested in your new offers?
7. Are you in a business that has very high price elasticity? Should you consider a radical drop in price to stimulate primary demand in your market before a competitor sees this opportunity & gains competitive advantage by doing it?
8. Have you tried to systemically understand your low cost competitor's business systems in real depth? What ideas would you come up with if you set the objective of coming up with 5 to 10 learning points from low cost competitors? Could you significantly improve your competitive position by implementing some of the ideas without threatening your core business model......assuming you still believe you have the right one?

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Recognizing Innovators - 10 Behavioral Characteristics

The following are 10 Behavioral Characteristics as outlined in The Business Model Innovation Factory by Saul Kaplan:

1. Innovators always think there is a way.
2. Innovators know that without passion there can be no innovation.
3. Innovators embrace change to a fault.
4. Innovators have a strong point of view but know they are missing something.
5. Innovators know that innovation is a team sport.
6. Innovators embrace constraints as opportunities.
7. Innovators celebrate their vulnerability.
8. Innovators openly share their ideas and passions, expecting to be challenged.
9. Innovators know that the best ideas are in the gray areas between silos.
10. Innovators know that a good story can change the world.

Identifying innovators and connecting them together in purposeful ways is the secret sauce for business model innovation. Change begins with the ability to recognize an innovator when you meet one.

 
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