Launching a Product - How Can a Service Company Transition to a Product Company

Hello, my name is Ian Peterman. I'm CEO and founder of Peterman Design Firm, and today I'm going to answer the question, how can a services company transition to a product company. Now, this is not always a typical transition, but with the way products are able to be sold and how it can be a value-add for customers, a lot of service companies or service-based companies do find a way to transition into a product company at the same time, at least, you know, keeping their services. And some even just transition away from being as much services as in really becoming a product company. So, and I've, I've worked with companies that have made this transition, and there's a few things that definitely should be thought of, and there's a process to it that can make that process easy and really take advantage of every asset that you have and some smart ways to do it. So things that we're going to cover in this video are, you know, how to get your customers' input, what you should be looking for It's not just asking them, do you want a product? There's a way to go about it, leveraging your existing customer base, and of course, looking for new similar markets. Now, the first one, getting your customers' input. There's 2 primary questions that you want to be asking yourself and then them. And it's, what products do your customers already use? So what do they use typically in a day? What do they use for business? What do they use— you know, on the go? What, what products are they typically purchasing and using now? And it doesn't have to be related to your services, just what products do they like? What kind of brands do they like? What kind of products do they use? Understanding and getting a feel for the product side of your customers can really help determine, you know, what are areas that your customers would be interested in? What kind of products do they like? Outdoor Are they, you know, camping? Do they do— what are they interested in, and what are those products they purchase? The other side of the second question that we want to ask is, do your customers need a product to use your service? So this is a really easy way to gently ease into products if you are a service-based company. For example, if you're, you know, a Spa. I actually worked with a spa to help bring, bring them more products. And if you're a spa, well, then your clients may want to use the products that you use when giving them treatments. And that's why, you know, haircut places, they have hair products, they sell hair products. Sometimes they create their own line of hair products to sell in their stores because It's associated directly with the service that they provide. Some companies, they actually provide a service, say that your, your service is training people in how to put together webinars and training and, you know, courses and things like that. Well, what are all the products that they're gonna need to put together in order to actually use or do what you're telling them they should be doing, or, you know, or improve the service that you're able to give them. And so, you know, for example, if you're, you're teaching people how to create a course, well, they're going to need some kind of mic potentially, or video equipment, things like that that are related to that. And, you know, I'm not saying you necessarily need to start a new camera company, but there's different tools and accessories, and, and you want to think about what those products are that your customers are ready if you have a buying. So if you have a list, say, of your service or even a product that you sell, and you, uh, but you have a service and you say you're going to need these things, you need these 10 things in order to utilize our service best, whatever those tools are, you know, or whatever they are, you should look— be looking at that and saying, well, how can I make my own version of that? Is that, you know, obviously go through the process. Is it worth it? Is it— is there a benefit there? Um, and, and seeing, okay, what can we do? And the reason you ask both of these questions is because you can then gather that information from an existing— these are your existing customers. You don't have to go hope someone will listen to you. You can contact— you send an email out to these your customers, figure out what they're using, and you can get their, their feedback a little bit better, and you can get their input because they already know, like, and trust you. They're your customers, right? So that means that you're going to be able to get more information and better feedback from them about these products, and you know that you can sell it to your existing customer base, which is far easier than trying to go out and get a new customer. Next thing I want to talk about is leveraging your existing customer base. So beyond just asking, you know, what do you want, what do you like, what, what products do you use, uh, you want to— even if they aren't going to be the initial demographic, so say you're launching a product that may not be completely for your existing customers, it's likely that you can use your current customer base to help promote your product. So you got to think of them as your team for launching. You send out an email letting them know that you're developing a product. You could involve them in the process, having user testing, saying, hey, you're an existing customer. How would you like to get a product and give us good feedback? So you really need to be able to look at your customer base and understand what they're willing to do and what they can do. And leverage every component. Don't try to go get a survey done outside of your own customers. Talk to your own customers. See who they think would be interested in it. Maybe there's something you can do in terms of building a referral program. You refer program, you get this product, you get a discount. You refer this, you get something else. So you already have this. This customer base, and it's really important for you to not forget about them as well. Because when you launch a product, you want that your customers— you've worked really hard to get them, you've worked really hard to give them value and provide them something that they believe is valuable and useful, and you now have this relationship. You want to make sure that you work with them in order to launch your new product, especially when you're leaving you're jumping out of a service area into a product space, it's really important to leverage your existing customer base in a really positive way to make sure you're putting out a product that's going to actually meet their needs. So the third area that you want to, want to be looking at is obviously your primary customer base is great. However, sometimes your product may actually be a great gateway into another market. And so something you wanna be doing is looking at, okay, well, my service only works for these people, but the product that I'm creating for them actually could work in this— these other areas as well. And so being aware of that and being able to look at, okay, well, I can market my product into these new market areas, will really help to grow your base and launch your product very quickly and get it spread out into as many markets as possible faster than if you just focus on your primary customers that already are your customers. You, of course, don't want to forget about them. You don't want to eliminate them from your marketing. You want to make sure they're aware and part of it. But being aware of these tangential areas can also produce this symbiotic relationship where maybe you start selling the product to these people over here that maybe you didn't think wanted your service, but it turns out after they are involved with the product and they understand your brand, maybe they come back and say, yeah, we actually want your service. So then the product and service start to feed each other in terms of you might find a customer via the product, you might find a customer via your services, and they can cross-sell very easily with each other. And so Keeping those things in mind will help guide you really well into making a smooth transition that is successful, because you definitely— product world, you don't want to go down that path, invest a whole bunch of money, and then come to a standstill. So, you know, we've covered a few different areas: getting customers' input, leveraging your existing customer base, and looking for new similar and related markets. And keeping those 3 things in mind will Really benefit you and make it successful. Hey, thanks for watching. We really appreciate our viewers, and if you haven't subscribed yet, please do subscribe to our channel so you can get more great videos like this in your feed. And like the video. If you want to learn more about the Peterman Design Firm, please check us out on our website, petermanfirm.com. You'll find link and information in The description, and of course we're on all social media as well, so check us out there. All right, thank you. Thank you.