How to Quickly and Easily Get Your Customers to Buy Ten Times More

17 Apr 2008 Jay (Jason Van Orden) 22 Comments

Survey Your MarketThere’s a relatively easy way to make your marketing drastically easier and significantly increase sales (and hence profits). Unfortunately, the *majority* of businesses completely overlook a critical element of sales and their businesses suffer for it.

What is this critical piece of business wisdom and marketing prowess? It’s probably more obvious than you realize.

Sell what your market *wants* most.

That’s it. Are you let down? Seem to easy? Well then why do so many people get this wrong?

Here’s how most businesses go about product development and sales. Someone gets a great idea. Their positive it’s what people want. They fall in love with it. It the best things since sliced yak meat. They build it. Then they go try to find a market to sell it to. Maybe they succeed. Often they fail.

The problem is that this is the EXACT OPPOSITE of what they should do.

The surefire to creating a product that sells is to…

Find a carefully targeted, starving market. Determine what they
desire most. Give it to them better than anyone else can.

Let’s break this seemingly simple process down.

Find a Carefully Target Market

Know who it is you are trying to reach. Know what makes them tick. This is easiest if you’re a member of the target market yourself. Make sure the market is large enough and has money to spend. At the same time, the more carefully niched your market is, the easier it is to stand out and be THE go-to-guy (or gal) for your market.

Find a Starving Market

Make sure your market has a hungry passion, burning need or insatiable appetite for something you can provide. For example, golfers will settle at nothing to remove one stroke from their score. If you have acne that embarrasses you, you’ll pay good money to have it solved NOW. Make sure they have money they are willing to spend to scratch their itch.

Disgruntled employees get to the point that they will do anything to quit their job and find something else to fulfill their lives and reach their dreams. (This begs the question: what do GRUNTLED employees want?)

Determine What They Desire Most

Attract the market. Communicate with the market. Develop a relationship with them. Ask them what they want most. Don’t assume what they want and certainly don’t make the mistake of guessing or assuming what you think they need. You’ll more than likely miss the mark enough to cost you considerable money.

Keep in mind that what they *want* and what they *need* could be two different things. It’s much easier to sell someone what they want.

For example, don’t assume that your spouse needs a treadmill for their birthday when what they really want is flowers or a golf club…doh!

Give Them What They Want

If you communicate with your market, you’ll learn a lot. Survey them. Visit forums. Observe what problems and questions are raised the most. What is it they want but are not getting? The better your relationship is with the market, the easier it will be to get meaningful feedback. The ideal people to ask are your own prospects/customer/community.

This is how I chose the topic for my book. When I surveyed the podcasting landscape, the number one desire of podcasters (whether they were beginner, advanced, indie or professional) was that they wanted more listeners. Hence I wrote the book, Promoting Your Podcast.

Give it To Them Better Than Anyone Else Does

Your market may have multiple options for getting what they want. This is why it’s important to have a Unique Selling Proposition (USP). Answer the question: why should they get what they want from you over every other option available to them? Here’s a hint. If your reason is “because I’m cheaper” than time to get back on the thinking yak and come up with a new USP.

—-

Now it’s time to “practice what we preach” and “teach by example.” Yeah. I know. We’re cool like that.

We’re continually working on new products and services to help you launch an internet business and online presence that will:

  • Bring you more freedom and fulfillment in life
  • Make you a recognized expert (or even celebrity) in your field
  • Create new revenue streams and increase your income by 100+%
  • Make sales, marketing and lead generation easy (and even fun)
  • Build a large community of loyal fans around your brand

We plan to launch a number of new things throughout the rest of 2008.

BUT FIRST, we need your input. This will help us continue to develop products and services that will best serve your needs…er…wants.

Please take a moment to fill out the following survey. It consists of one short page.

There are two reasons why you should take this survey.

  1. To have your voice heard and ensure you get what you want from Internet Business Mastery
  2. To flat out steal from us and save yourself the time and energy of coming up with a survey for your own market. Just look at what we’ve done and adapt it to your own market.

No worries…we won’t take it personally if you swipe from us. Actually, we might take it personally if you don’t.

We greatly appreciate your feedback. It will directly impact he creation of valuable new products/services for you.

Now, what say you on this matter? What have I missed? If nothing else, can you please offer me a definition for the word gruntled? Let’s hear it in the comments below. (BTW, a new episode of the podcast is coming next week. Promise.)

Here’s the link again for the survey

 

This post is in: Creating Information Products

22 Comments Leave a Comment


hello,

I have subscribed to your site and podcast hoping I would find information on how to start an online business, what business permits and licenses to get and things of that nature. But I haven’t found any information on your site.
If you do have some information that I just may not have stumbled on. I’d appreciate it if you bring it to my attention.

Thank you.

Ian


The link to the survey doesn’t seem to be working. Is it just me?


It’s the link at the bottom of the post that isn’t working. The “Feedback” and “fill out the following survey” links work.


@Bryan,

Thanks for the heads up. I fixed the bottom link.


@Ian,

Check out our episodes on LLCs. That should be helpful. The course we recommend will also get you pointed in the right direction if you’re in the U.S.


gruntled: adjective–pleased, satisfied, and contented.

In usage, “I am gruntled about the IBM Course.”


Hey Guys,
Great stuff here.
Envious about Hawaii!

Quick question, I’m trying to understand how the micro site concepts works…having a main portal…which we have…but rather than all our products on our main site…where they live now…how do we and why would we create micro sites for each product?

Info here…
Thanks!


Hey Jay,

Congratulations for your interview with Dan Kennedy regarding podcasting.

All the best,

Ed Torres


@Ed,

Thanks. Did you get it in the mail? How did it turn out. I haven’t heard it back yet. It’s much harder to get such things in the mail in Argentina.

@Mimi,

I should share some photos from Hawaii.

The answer to your question depends on your strategy. Really, there is no reason to remove them from your current site. There are times you might want mini-sites for each product. The basic premise is to give the consumer one site with one purpose and one thing for them to do. This is good for an AdWords campaign for example. I’ll put this on the list to talk about in a future episode. There’s more than I can feasibly share here.

@Devin,

I’m gruntled to hear that you’re gruntled with the course :).


Hi guys,

I recently discovered your site and have been going back through the older Podcasts for the first time. To say they contain awesome information would be an incredible understatement! One issue that has been on my mind for a few months, and was I ever happy to find you had addressed it, was the issue of internet liability and the use of corporations and in particular LLC’s.

My question du jour is this. I have somewhere around fifty domains in various stages of development and was wondering if I need to have each set up as a separate LLC or can I have them all under the umbrella of a parent company / LLC? I sure hope that it is the later.

Thanks again for all of your hard work and tremendous contribution to all of your listeners success.

In your debt,

Grant Burhans
http://www.mountainconnections.com


Hi Jay,

I subscribe Dan Kennedy’s marketing tools and I got the CD through snail mail. Looks like Dan was impressed with your podcast knowledge!

Awesome interview. :)

Ed Torres


Hey Jay!

Love your podcast(s). I was trying to figure out what I am doing wrong with my own podcast. I found you through a website on podcasting where you mentioned OurMedia.

I sent some stuff to them and got audio on my page. I am also using FeedBurner. Problem is, when I try to subscribe, iTunes picks up the non-audio stuff. Does my podcast have to be put within an actual article to register with iTunes?

Having a few other problems too, but too much to list here.

Thanks for your help,
J. Jolaine
http://jjolaine.blogspot.com
http://www.myspace.com/jamiejolaine


Thanks Jay. I appreciate the help. That podcast really helped. I have also subscribed to the free services of the local SBDC here in CA. Thanks again.

Ian


Your interview with Bill Glazer on the Glazer-Kennedy Inner Circle CD was phenomenal! The perfect information I need this very minute.


Gentlemen. Fantastic podcast! I’ve downloaded them all. I’m currently on episode 27. I plan to have a marathon listening session this weekend to catch up.

Anyway, here’s my question. I would love to offer a free eBook for signing up to my newsletter. I’m having difficulty finding an eBook provider. It seems all my searches bring up the wrong kind of eBook I’m looking for. My podcast is business/entrepreneur based, so I want to offer more free tips and give another reason to subscribe.

Any help would be great.

Thanks!


@Jay,

Yeah, cool interview! I really like the mentions of IBM there…


Hey guys, this is one of the best websites, podcast ever.
It really touched me.

Why?

I am 15, and I am doing all the internet marketing. I am your youngest listener. ;) And not that other 17 year old guy. I listen to the podcasts while I’m sleeping and when I get an inspirational idea or connection, I have to wake myself up and write it down…

I go through the same problems. The podcast were very inspirational.

I was very surprised to learn that adults also go through the same problems!!

This stuff is gold.

Of course :) I feel obligated to donate.

This comment is really vague so I’ll write a personal message later on.


Coll cast, keep it up!


J & S - Good show! I’ve found the most powerful solutions are most often the simplest. Another tip to increase sales: Just ask. Most of us 0 online and off - need to invite our audience to buy more often than we do. Quick Question: I’ve responded to your survey, and that got me thinking - I’d love to participate in a 1- or 2-day in-person training seminar in conjunction with the New Media Expo. Any plans along those lines?


Hey when is the new revised website going to be released…

I cant wait… If i recall somewhere the website was meant to be updated…

Thanks :)

As I cant wait :)


Jason and Sterling,

What a great MIND JOGGING article that you just wrote and it really sunk in and I spend my whole morning reaffirming and refocusing (w/Mindjet of course) what my customers really want out in the marketplace. Sometimes it takes a quality article from the guru’s you believe in (and been following for over two years now) to give you great insight.

THIS ARTICLE IS PRICELESS!

Bob


@Grant,

We have two episodes on LLC which are an interview with someone who is really qualified to answer those questions. Here they are:

http://www.internet-based-business-mastery.com/start-internet-business-llc-1
http://www.internet-based-business-mastery.com/start-internet-business-llc-2

@ Mike,

You could record an audio and give them an MP3 as a free opt-in. That is one thing we do with Internet Business Mastery. They get the audio and the transcripts of the audio. People seems to really like it. We try to be different. If everyone else in our niche is giving an e-book, we give audio and transcripts. It’s the Dan Kennedy way. If everyone is doing X, you do Y.

@Hanson,

Thanks Youngen’. Oh the things I could be doing had I started at 15… Phew…

@Scott,

We are actually talking about going. I think Jay goes every year, but we might do like we did at the Yanik Silver seminar and get IBM students together and chat, at the very least. They sure seemed to like it. We’ll let you know on the blog and email newsletter if it is something that will go down!

@MaxNYC,

Oh it’s coming! The process has been a bear, but we are in the home stretch now. Can’t say for sure since I thought it would be done in February…

@Bob,

Wow, priceless eh! I love it!

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