3 Steps to Determine What Buyers Actually Want
When starting a business, we are sure our product will be a best seller. Why? Because we love it.
Believing in our product is the very reason we launch a business. Just watch an episode of Shark Tank. There’s usually this really optimistic guy who had this idea to solve a problem he had. He wants other people to feel the same relief and he wants to make money along the way. His intentions are good. But is his product?
Step 1: Objectively Evaluate Your Product.
Let’s say you develop a colorful journal with a sunrise on the cover because you love watercolor and it makes you feel happy to see it on your table with your morning coffee. You decide to print copies and take them to your local bookstore to sell. You observe journal lovers admire it in the store, but you aren’t sure why they aren’t taking it home in a shopping bag.
The tough reality with many products is this: Simply because it’s important to you doesn’t mean it’s important to others. And that’s a painful pill to swallow.
What Are People Telling You Through Their Actions?
This may seem pretty elementary, but we ignore the obvious: people tell you what they want through their actions, not their words. If people aren’t buying your journal, either they don’t need another journal or they don’t see how your journal is better than other journals.
If they don’t see a need, there could be no real demand for a product. If they can’t see how the product is better, this could simply mean poor marketing of a product. You can fix poor marketing (more on this later), but no demand is a reality you need to objectively face.
Look at the Data, Not Your Emotions.
To be successful, you have to emotionally detach from demanding an outcome for your product. Instead, ask without attachment what is selling and what isn’t selling.
It’s sometimes that simple. While it’s commendable to try to influence what people want if they don’t know they need something amazing, in the end, selling products will come down to demand.
Taking a hard look at the data is the best thing you can do for a product—very similar to taking a hard look at your bank account instead of hiding from the numbers, or taking a hard look at a relationship that feels off. Growth and success come from facing the facts.
How many products are selling? Do you have another product that’s selling more but you are less interested in it? It may indicate that while you have a passion product personally, people actually want something else. Not all passion products need to be marketed. Only demand products will make money.
Step 2: Create a Buyer Persona
If you’ve looked at your product and it feels to be selling randomly, one way you can evaluate if it’s a marketing problem is by creating a Buyer Persona. This is a chart of who your buyer is. This helps you to know if there’s a common theme driving people to your product and who to market to for your sales. Here are a few questions to get you started:
What are your buyer demographics? Age, sex, race, income, and family dynamics are a few areas that may have a common thread. You may realize you’re marketing to the wrong person because you assumed your buyer is just like you or you’ve determined who you want your buyer to be instead of knowing who they actually are. If you’re selling sporadically, it could be your marketing isn’t attractive to your actual buyer.
How do they spend their money in this area of their life (your product’s area)?
What are their pain points?
What objections do they have about buying your product?
How do they obtain information? What social platforms are they on?
What real problems do they have? Ask them. Doing a poll can be very revealing.
You don’t need everyone to buy your product; You need a niche group of customers to repeatedly buy your product or tell others about your product. Trying to sell to everyone will often leave businesses selling to no one.
Based on the above questions, determine who your buyer actually is, not who you assume or want them to be. Market to that person’s problem.
Step 3: Understand Your Competition.
Whenever I’m competing in a game, I like to put on my mental blinders against my competition so I don’t get in my head. The problem with this approach is that I can’t see where they might be beating me in the end. Comparison can distract us if we’re using it for emotional value data, but if we use it as objective data we can be honest about who our competitors are and how they might be outdoing us.
Your successful competition tells you a lot about your buyer if you pay close attention. A coffee shop, for example, that is getting destroyed by Starbucks is not only fighting excellent, expensive brand strategy, but the ease of apps and mobile orders. Remember, solving customer problems creates demand. How is your competition solving the problems better than you?
It’s hard to accept, but if you have two gyms and Gym A has an excellent online presence, a customer who has never visited either Gym A or Gym B will probably visit the well-branded Gym A. Next, if Gym A is welcoming, professional, and safe, the customer may never even make it to check out Gym B. Sadly, Gym B may be an above par gym but Gym A’s marketing beat them to the punch.
What is your competition doing right? What could you do even better? Looking at these key successful areas of your competition will show you what your customer actually wants (it may not be a luxury coffee bar at the gym, but a necessity like childcare).
Getting Real About What Your Buyer Really Wants.
Remind yourself: I am not my buyer. You are the creator. It’s great to be your own first buyer (which makes your company or product more interesting to you), but the market for your item may either look different than you or may not be there at all. Getting honest about your products is a big step in the right direction of success.
So now you may be thinking, what do I do if I realize there’s no market?
That’s a tough realization, especially if you are passionate about your product. Many successful business owners had to pivot their product—or company completely. And you know what? It happens a lot. It’s hard to feel like you failed, but really, you tried something and learned invaluable information for your next project.
Most people never try to start a business. You’re already a step ahead in courage. Don’t count yourself a failure if you realize your product isn’t marketable. Instead, you’ll be a business-minded professional who understands how products sell due to real life experience. Perhaps you realized there’s already a more successful product or service that will take you further. Listen to your buyers and it will lead you to the demand and success!