The previous week was very demanding, from a business point of view! On top of that, I had to meet a friend of mine because he was asked me for an appointment! He wanted to discuss some problems he was facing in his job! As a general rule, I try to avoid meetings (of all kinds), especially at the periods of demanding work! But he was a friend (and a client), and I was really interested in listening to what he had to say!
The topic of our meeting was that he had spent numerous hours trying to lift up his business and promote his solutions, he had spent a lot of time in phone calls talking to clients, he had found and associated with the best partners in his field, he had promoted his solutions to social media, but … he had no results!
It was a huge problem, and he wanted to talk about with another person! A business startup is not an easy topic! Not a smooth venture! It has problems and if you cannot find adequate solutions, your failure is guaranteed!
I think it for a while, and the first thing is pops-up in my mind was that all that effort should have a result! But soon, as I thinking it a little further, I realize that moving is not progress! And that I said to him.
To put a lot of effort into a venture (his business startup) is usually part of the success code. But, to be successful you need to comply with other parts of this code, as well, which are:
- A direction,
- Specific objectives and goals,
- A Business Strategy,
- A methodology or an approach for structuring your business on firm foundations,
- A solid grasp of the new business environment,
- Expertise and market knowledge,
- The constant effort of building better solutions and make them known to your prospects!
- Commitment to the quality of offered services/products,
- A solid operation base,
- A community or/and an audience,
- A unique value proposition or, if you are in training areas a UTVP – Unique Training Value Proposition,
- A differentiation against all similar solutions/products
among other parameters!
The “success code” is a complex equation, no one can reproduce exactly in each situation! And that it is difficult!
What I explain to my friend was that “moving” is not enough! A product or a service does not just need improvement and, contrary to common conception, there are not products that “sell themselves“.
A product or service is the result of various coefficient variables focused on making something effective (in any meaning) in its field, appealing to the specific audience and sell-able (whatever that means!)
So, as I have explained to him, you have two ways to follow for making your solutions fly:
- Pay attention to all other variables comprise the “package” you referred to as: “my solution“. You should check variables as:
- Customer satisfaction & support
- Quality assurance
- Promotion strategy
- Solution Marketing
- Cost-effectiveness
- Attention and service to YOUR audience
- Attention to the small details that can ruin the whole experience (like an effective call center or well-informed client support agents)
- New features or a further development of product/service
- Research and Development
- Training and Education of your audience on the specifics of your service/product
- Product rollout
- Versioning stability
- …
- Do something else, or develop something new from the ground up, based on what the market demands!
It doesn’t matter how many hours you put into something! It is the quality hours (i.e. the hours serve your objectives about your services/product/solution) that matters! It the why and the how you provide value with your solution and the how you develop a community around your solution, that brings the required results!
You do not sell! You develop a solution for a specific segment of people need to employ it in their business. All the rest are history! Period.
Question: How much effort cost you the development of your solution/product? If you have the knowledge and chance, what you would do differently? Drop a line or two here!
