May
19
Making and Selling What People Want To Buy
I talk to a lot of people in a lot of different lines of work. One of the most consistent problems I see in would-be ittybiz owners — whether they’re selling ebooks online, plumbing services from their basement, hats in a bricks and mortar store or gloves in an Etsy shop — is the total lack of consideration for what their customers actually want.
The “should we make and sell this?” question is answered — if you can call it an answer — by saying, “You know what would be AWESOME?!?!”
Awesome for you, or awesome for them?
A good friend of mine was about to make their first ebook. It was on Obscure And Academic But Still Fairly Interesting Topic X. It didn’t have much to do with what was going on in his existing business, but he knew a lot about the topic and was passionately convinced that it would seriously help those who read it.
“Are there people out there who would buy this product?” says I.
“Absolutely,” he replies.
“Do any of them read your blog?”
[sound of crickets chirping]
We create ebooks that really should be print resource books or free manifestos, thinking that if we can just make them realize they need it, we’ll save the world. True enough, but it’s a damn hard sell. If people don’t identify as having the problem you’re solving, they’ll never read it, whether they actually have the problem or not. And if they don’t read it, you don’t help anybody.
There’s a lot of talk these days about creating the business, product, or service of your heart. Kind of like business as self-actualization tool. We’re all supposed to create the thing that would bring us transendental bliss to make. Create soulful stuff, they say, and people will come.
Yes. Fair enough. If you create exactly what makes your heart sing and publicize it adequately, your odds are good that eventually, somebody will show up and buy your shit.
Alternatively, you could look at the people you have now and solve a problem they already have.
You see this a lot in, weirdly enough, craft businesses and techie types.
Crafty Ittybiz says: We should make it in blue! We should make it reversible! We should make it in greeting card size! We should give it flaps!
Techie Ittybiz says: We should do home study classes! We should create an offline version! We should make it work on the iPad! We should integrate it with Facebook!
Why?
Is there any evidence whatsoever that people are looking for flaps? Do you have any reason to believe that your 83 blog readers WANT a six-part teleclass? Or are you adding flaps and home study courses to give you something fun to do while avoiding the much more unpleasant task of market research?
It’s all about practicalities. Waste of time to create something no one’s gonna use, right?
Making the Speakeasy call today for the first time in forever. Woo hoo! Figure the least I can do is make the last one, jeez. :)
Oh, never mind. The SECOND to last call. I can haz read.
Dude, YAY! You’ll get me high and croaky. :)
Umm.. Ouch!
A much needed Ouch!
I think it’s also easy to feel that everyone around you is launching something and you should too. So you feel pressure to follow suit and think “Well what could my product be about?”
If you wanted to get something out quickly to keep up, it’s easeir to draw on your own personal experience or passion than to take some time to find out what people want and spend more time on researching a topic that’s wanted but not what you can write with your eyes closed.
That’s a lot less sexy and behind the scenes than talking about your latest eBook launch.
That’s very true. It seems like a very pressure filled atmosphere.
At the same time, there are things we could write with our eyes closed that could still solve legitimate problems. Like, Dave Navarro is coming out with a report on how to make a mini product in a weekend (or something like that). There are things you and I could make in a weekend that would be fun as hell, but not sell. Then there are things we could make that would be useful as hell.
One way to figure out what’s useful without having to ask people is find 50 people in your orbit — your fans and followers, or the fans and followers of the people a little bigger than you — and find some common elements of what they’re doing wrong. Like, if the last 50 people you followed on Twitter tend to write really uninspired blog post titles. 20 page PDF plus a 15 minute audio tutorial and you’re in the money for a mini product.
I think people just don’t do that because, well, it’s boring. Let’s face it, if I could write ebooks about Twitterati Douchebags, the copywriting thing would be out the window. :)
Mm, I’d buy the Twitter one…
Actually, I think you should write one of those business best-sellers that are almost always written by American men with bald heads. Who the fuck moved my cheese, that sort of thing.
(now I feel all inappropriate for swearing on the internet)
Seller: It’s great! It’s amazing! It will do all this cool stuff! How many can I put you down for?
Buyer: Does it do this? Or this? Is it about this? I would really love that!
Seller: Umm..no. None of those things.
Buyer: Goodbye!
Lol…sucks not having what people are looking for. You are right on Naomi! If it doesn’t do what buyers want, why the hell are you putting all this crap into it in the first place? Gotta get that market research done before you waste time and money building something no one will give two craps about. :-)
HA!! I’d forgotten about “how many can I put you down for?” That’s always hilarious. :)
Yep, I have to control myself from laughing out loud every time I hear a salesman say that. :)
Right. As usual. Doesn’t that get boring? :P
Very helpful darlin’ – I love it when you tell it like it is. But I want you to know that if you didn’t have this fabulous mind, I’d still marry you for your money.
PS – On the business as self-actualization tool epidemic – I have a feeling this started with the Secret. I blame everything like this on that movie.
I also have fabulous hair.
that is an absolute truth! I love your hair. at least I love your hair in the picture posted here.
And guess what? I write a bunch of shit avoiding the very hard and undesirable (because I don’t know how to do it) work of market research. I am totally stumped right there in the driveway for real beauty. I think I have a good idea and yet I have no idea how to find out what the market that I don’t yet have access wants me to sell them.
that’s the crux isn’t it?
shannon
I will take this one step further. There is also something else that you hafta do when you are marketing that product AFTER you realize that people want it.
You have to market it to the people that want to buy it. Way too many bloggers, myself included, keep talking to the same crowd of people that are trying to do the same thing. We spin a lot of wheels, type a lot of posts and content, and then end up preaching to the choir.
Make sure that you are sending your lovely marketing message in the general direction of the ears that are supposed to be hearing it. Otherwise, you are just swapping free content, like rummage sale addicts.
-Joshua Black
The Underdog Millionaire
Yeah I read that in the post you wrote, and the one Hugh MacLeod wrote on Copyblogger. Poignant point, indeed. If we’re going to teach people how to sell on Etsy, we would be wise to find people who want to know how to sell on Etsy. :)
Thank you guys for stopping by yesterday and picking up a copy of my sales letter book. I appreciate the business, especially from such a sassy blog as yours.
-Joshua Black
The Underdog Millionaire
Well, I know that I would like flaps, so for sure that means — whoops.
Guilty.
In most markets, I will agree with you. In the fashion world though, it’s all about the next big thing. I’m not talking about utilitarian type garments like hiking boots or workout wear. In fashion, people don’t realize they want it until they see it, or see it as a trend.
Selling pretty things to wear doesn’t really solve a problem, so marketers in the fashion industry really need to cater to the vanity in us all. This is much harder than solving an obvious problem.
OMG, dude, I haven’t seen you in FOREVER! Hi again! When I saw you say something about fashion I was like, wait a minute… is that THE Sandra?
Sure enough, yes. I am psychic.
Thanks for coming, lady!
Dude! It’s ME!!! I know, sorry for not being around much. I’ve been spinning wheels and working on a cool new project. Working with two great e-courses right now (Danielle’s and Chris’), otherwise I’d be buying up all your stuff.
Hope you are well. Maybe we can have that call we never finished?!
I’d have to disagree with that. I think fashion is all about solving problems. If I find a pair of pants that fit over my large hips but don’t gap unattractively around my small waist I will buy every single pair in every color because it solves my problem of looking like I have an elephant butt in everything else. Fashion is appealing to people vanity by solving a problem they view in themselves.
Make it “AWESOME for them…” and “solve a problem they already have”
Great advice! Simple to say, but slow to accomplish, at least from the product side… Maybe I am just getting impatient…
ps. Great use of the word, “AWESOME.” It is underutilized in marketing.
Yes. Slow is indeed a bitch. You have my sympathy there. :)
Lady, I often find myself wanting to work on the “fun” stuff rather than making that cold call. Decidedly un-fun.
Btw, my husband saw your logo over my shoulder the other day and was all, “Dang! Who’s that?!” So I think he likes your logo. Or at least that provocative pose ;)
Please don’t tell him — or anyone, for that matter — that the logo is actually modelled on Havi Brooks. It would break my heart and ruin my image.
True story.
Yes! I want flaps with that! I am living in this spot right now with some clients — and please don’t limit the discussion to small biz. This is big biz issue as well. Do you want it right or not? Do you want it thought-through or hastily assembled? Spend a second of thought on the question and you’ll at least pick up the phone to talk to a prospective user, even if you have no mockup to show. Once you lose that fine, fresh sense that you are the center of the universe, you realize that you have NO IDEA what people really want unless you poke around and ask them. So, you stop, think it through and go ask them. Or create crap and call it product.
New tagline: Do you want flaps with that?
It’s a short field, so I want FULL FLAPS with mine, even if it costs extra.
I remember as a writer thinking to myself one day, that you make your art for them, but you give it as a gift to yourself. The danger in that is that you’re always worried about what they will think and you don’t get anything done. The key is to create the thing and get it out, whatever it is, then remember that someone else has to get some use or enjoyment out of it. If it’s for you, keep it in the house. If it’s good enough and useful enough for them, then put it out there. It’s a dance.
I learned (the very hard way) I should be selling what people are already buying. If it is in line with my passion, even better. Surveys have become my new best friend. :-)
So g*damn right that’s it’s scary!
It was ingrained in my brain during grad school that you always conduct a Needs Assessment b/4 offering services. Just b/c you think people need something, doesn’t necessarily mean they think so…
I heard somewhere to work on the ‘GREAT’ ideas, not the ‘GOOD’ ideas.
What’s a GREAT idea? Something you want to wake up in the morning and do.
What’s a GOOD idea? Something you say to yourself ‘That will make so much money, I should work on it’.
I felt pretty good about that theory, and was working on applying it. Only – I have breakfast food to purchase. I needs da money.
So – I like your breakdown of taking that saying, and making it make more sense for me. GREAT idea for WHO?
Helping others is a great motivator – and seems to bring out the co-dependent part of some people. Dragging/forcing or coercing others to your “great idea/product/service” just makes everyone feel icky.
The only thing that comes up for me in the moment is… “but I don’t wanna!” Okay, that’s done. Thanks for listening.
People need stuff. You get to deliver it. Or not. If you hate delivering it, it won’t work. If they don’t want it, it won’t work.
The creative venture, obviously, is to find the intersection. On your marks, get set,…
I don’t wanna either, if it helps any. Would much rather write my salacious tell-all memoir, “They Named The Baby Tweet: The Timeless Love Story of Naomi Dunford and Chris Brogan.”
Alas, that must wait.
(Must remember to ask my publicist: Is it gauche to use my married name, or should I revert to my maiden?)
See, I have the opposite problem. “Fuck, nobody needs this. Nobody even wants it. Why am I wasting my time again?”
Sigh. If only I had your problems. ;)
Why am I wasting my time again?
Because you’d be wasting your time anyway. May as well waste your time on this. :)
Yeah, market research really does suck. Really. I don’t even know why. But I’ll do almost anything to avoid it. Except maybe wash the dishes. We all have our limits, right?
I’m going to agree & disagree, just for fun ;) ….
It’s true that “business as self-actualization tool” isn’t a great idea. There are times and places for discovering the meaning of existence (or whatever), but product brainstorming sessions are one of them.
That said, if the meaning of your existence is to help people SOLVE a problem, surely you can design products accordingly… and feel all transcendental about it to.
Hopefully you figure out the problems you want to solve, before you attract a big audience.
“One way to figure out what’s useful without having to ask people is find 50 people in your orbit — your fans and followers, or the fans and followers of the people a little bigger than you — and find some common elements of what they’re doing wrong.”
i love that. It’s what I’ve been doing. I’m following the comments on the blogs I read regularly and seeing if I can pick up any common threads. This is an interesting exercise. Sometimes there are common threads on a single blog and sometimes there are common threads across all all of them.
When I pick up a common thread on one blog, the plan is to approach the blog owner and go “here’s this problem your readers are looking for a solution to, perhaps we can put something together, either JV or affiliate” if there’s one across more than one blog, that’s the product I should be making (haven’t found one that I want to yet, but it’s out there, I can feel it)
So much great advice in one post. I love usefulness! Thanks so much, I’ll be linking to this.
Oooh! I just made a fancy chart with a sharpie on my wall. Thanks for this. You always know how to make concepts make more sense in my brain.
Hey Naomi,
It seems to me market research has only gotten easier and easier. I got Dave’s new report on Wed. I’m working on my new product this weekend. All I had to do was go to twitter and ask people what their biggest problem is on my topic. I got answers, and now I’m doing my product. Before that I did a poll on my blog to see where people were having problems so I could do posts that solved people’s problems, and create products people needed.
I don’t think there’s any excuse for NOT doing market research now, when there are so many free tools to help you with it,(survey sites, twitter, facebook) and so many places where people bitch about all the problems they have. Check out any forum on any topic and you’ll have 100 product ideas right there.
Dang, the marketing is so distasteful to me, even if it’s nice marketing. I heard somewhere to allow the same amount of time for marketing as for product development.
I’d rather make a product nobody wants which is fun for me to make than spend time making something and then have to spend a whack of time getting it out there to the people who need it. It’s not like they’ll find me by themselves.
Truth be told though, doing what pleases me won’t make me a dime. Is it time to put on my big girl panties?
that’s a very good point Naomi, thanks for making it clear
Straight and to the point the kind of stuff I love. For me the nugget was solving a problem people already have. It’s all about now. I need help you give it to me and I’m happy to pay for that help as I really need it. Emotional Support 101.That will never go out of business
Everyone definitely needs to have a plan that involves gaining feedback about their blog and what their users are actually looking for.
The business I work for has seen many hits and miss over the years with their products. I’ve been commanding my involvement lately to bring together analytics, polls, feedback and more and now we’ve been releasing products that have been flying off the shelves.
We began listening to what the customers wanted. Talked to them on the phone. Listened to their email. Collected their concerns and crafted each new product to fulfill what they wanted.
Dear Hollywood,
Please stop telling lies. People don’t ‘do it’ standing up THAT often, babies don’t come out all clean, and kooky girls don’t become self-sufficient business women overnight by selling random-flavored cupcakes, EVEN if it’s all they’ve ever, ever dreamed of.
Thank you.
Most business owners don’t know what they need sometimes. In their mind, they want to make money. If that is the only motivation then they are in trouble. Some would say that very little has change in the world. That maybe is true.
In the past we had to do business with strangers. Now in 2010 that is not the case. The smart thing to do in your Marketing is build an “Emotional Branding” with them and you will sell more.
I think an underlying reason why people create the info product of their dreams is that they get to stay in “creation mode.” Creation mode feels safe. You’re busy. You’re workin’ hard. You’re productive! You get to stay in the warm cocoon of dreaming about all the great things that will happen when your audience realizes the brilliance of what you’ve produced.
Creation mode enables you to stay out of “sales mode.” Sales mode is not safe. In sales mode you have to sweat writing copy that compels people to buy what you’re offering. You have to deal with frustration and rejection. You might even have to accept that you spent all that time and effort creating something no one wants. Booo! That’s no fun. Sooo why not go back into creation mode where things are nice and cozy. Thus the cycle begins again…
Elge, I think you’re spot on. But it’s more than that. We’re all better at talking than we are at listening to what others have to say. It’s easier, and more fun, to listen to and implement our own ideas than to really learn to understand what the other person is saying.
I know I struggle to figure out what it is my readers want. Even if they leave me a comment, or ask me for something, it’s hard to really figure out what it is they need – words are rather inadequate. The easiest product to provide is one which meets a need we ourselves have/had because that we understand.
hi,nice pants in your post,I love thatgreatpants,I need to find one for me,bill