Introduction
Creating a product or service that people will want to buy doesn’t have to be a mystery. It doesn’t require specialized techniques that are available to only a select few. With the amount of information available on the internet, setting up a business has truly become democratized. It’s accessible to anyone who will put in the effort to do their research and apply their knowledge.
Setting up a business sounds simple – come up with a business idea, package the product, market it, and rake in the money.
As you probably suspect, this is an oversimplification, so in this blog post I will go through the steps you can take to further refine your business idea and take it to market.
People have written entire books on how to sell what people want, but I’m going to distill the essentials into one easy, actionable blog post. This will give you the basics of how to get started on your entrepreneurial journey. I will go through the factors you need to consider when creating your product, the process of determining whether there is a market for it, and how to promote it and get the word out to potential customers.
Step 1. Decide whether to sell a service or a product
Everywhere you look, there is a glut of stuff for sale. Products are available through the internet, brick and mortar shops, malls, and stores. Vendors fill their shelves with products, and you can buy software online with a click of the mouse. It seems like there is a solution in the form of a product for every problem that you have.
That’s why you need to dig deep when you are trying to create a product or service to sell. Go one step ahead and try to really differentiate yourself from the crowd.
Your product doesn’t need to reinvent the wheel. You can recycle and repackage by representing it in a different way that improves upon the original idea. For example, you can re-design something so that it is easier to consume or use.
But the question you want to answer is, what do people need or want?
Unless you’re entirely self-sufficient and don’t need anything, everyone needs something!
People are persuaded to buy or consume your product because it helps them solve a problem.
The first step is to decide whether you want to sell a product or a service. There are advantages and drawbacks of each.
For a physical product, you have to manufacture it, which requires finding the equipment and raw materials to get started. You may also need a warehouse to store the products. But unlike a service, you can mass produce it and sell many units of it, whereas if you’re selling a service, it’s constrained by the amount of time you have to offer the service, and the price that you set for your time. There’s only one of you, or the number of people you employ, so your offering is constrained by time.
There’s a solution to both of these problems, and people have capitalized on it many times. Instead of a physical product, you can sell digital products such as ebooks, courses, software, and paid digital subscriptions. Your products are more scalable this way, and it eliminates the need for raw materials, warehouses or employees.
Step 2. Find a niche
The next step is to find a niche. Some of the more popular niches include finance, food, lifestyle, fitness and travel. But these are generally broad, so narrow down your niche to be more specific. The more narrow the niche, the better because you’re faced with less competition.
If you can’t decide on a niche, write down a list of all the characteristics of your target demographic, including their age, education, family, career, and gender. These are the criteria that will help you decide in which market you want to target.
Always have your target market in mind when designing your product; this will guide you on how to sell what people want.
Step 3. Do market research
Do your market research to find out whether your idea is appealing to your target market, and whether it’s something they will want to buy. The results of your research allows you to question your assumptions about your customer. For example, you might think that they want to buy something, but your results show that they want something entirely different.
Market research is usually done through interviews, emails, focus groups, surveys and questionnaires (primary sources). You don’t need to spend a lot of money or hire a third party market research company to do it for you. It can be done as simple as sending a questionnaire to your Facebook group and asking them for feedback on your idea.
Know the trends in your industry inside out by conducting research on secondary sources such as white papers, which are available at your local library or online.
Once you have collected your data, it’s time to analyze it. There are different analytic techniques you can use, depending on whether your research was quantitative or qualitative. You can use software to analyze the data, some of which are free.
Doing a competitor analysis is also part of the next step. Find out your competitors’ strengths and weaknesses to better understand how you can fill the gap in the market. The analysis will be useful when it’s time to think of ways to differentiate your business from your competitors.
Step 4. Create a minimum viable product
After you’ve done some brainstorming and some market research, it’s time to choose one idea and create what is called your “minimum viable product” or MVP. The MVP is your starting point. If you’re unsure if there will be enough demand for your product, try creating an early version of what you want your product to be. It has the basic features which will still make it functional, but without the bells and whistles of the final product. The point of the MVP is to test the waters without wasting your resources to create something that won’t sell.
An example of an MVP is as an app with the basic features, a website with only a landing page, or the essentials of a service. An MVP doesn’t have to be a product either, it could be a survey asking your potential customers whether they are interested if you created a product or service.
The MVP gauges the interest of your potential customers, and gives you an idea if you can potentially make sales off of the product. It’s at this point that you can gather feedback, and test the product, and solve any issues such as bugs in your app.
Step 5. Create your brand
Now that you have your product, the next step is to decide on your branding strategy. Branding could include anything that visually represents your business, such as logos, colours, fonts, and designs on your website. At this point, it might help to hire a graphics designer on a contract basis to design your website.
Branding also includes the messages and slogans associated with your business. There are branding agencies solely devoted to branding strategy, but if you don’t have the resources to hire an agency, you can easily do the basics on your own.
You should ask yourself, what emotions do you want to go through the minds of your customer when they think of your brand? Shape your message to trigger these emotions.
To be effective, your message must be persuasive, sharp, to the point, and geared towards your target market. It should answer the question, why should your customer buy from you instead of any other competitor?
Step 6. Marketing your product or service
The final step to selling what people want is to choose your marketing channels, which can include social media, paid ads, and email. Digital marketing is overtaking traditional forms of marketing (e.g. physical ads and broadcast ads on TV or radio) so it would be wise to concentrate your efforts on social media platforms and ads as seen on search engines.
Your marketing efforts should lead your customer down the sales funnel. To do this successfully, you have to hold their hand and guide them through the process. Have a step-by-step strategy by first promoting your product or service, offering great value, and landing the sale. To clinch the sale, use the insights gained from your market research to reiterate why your product offers the best solution to their problem.
Follow up on prospective buyers by sending out a call to action, which can be in the form of an email to keep your product on their radar. Whatever method you choose, it should convince the customer to take that final step and buy your product.
Conclusion
It takes advance planning and a good strategy to sell what people want. Start by deciding whether you will sell a product or a service in a niche that is either not too saturated or one that allows you to stand out from the crowd. Once you do your market research, create your MVP and get ready to focus on branding and marketing the product. If you follow these steps you’re well on your way to making your very first sale.