579. WHY NO ONE is Buying Your Products

Nobody's born with years of marketing knowledge in their brain, right? And mistakes are going to happen. I make them literally every day at each level of my business. Every day is new and different. But now you know that if you want a successful business, it's time to learn these foundations. Hi, I'm Jacqueline Snyder and this is the Product Boss podcast. I've helped launch and grow thousands of product based businesses, even one of my own. And over the last 20 years, I've seen behind the scenes of businesses just like yours. Whether they are makers, manufacturers, artists, or food and beverage businesses. I have spent so many hours studying it all. I've discovered what makes them successful, what are mistakes they could avoid, how did they turn an idea into successful business? And what are strategies they have used to make more sales and be discovered by more customers. This is what this show is all about. Whether you're just starting out or you're looking to become a million dollar product boss, I'm here to give you the permission to chase your dreams, no matter how big or small. All you need is the right mindset, a little courage, strategy and support, and you too can be the next million dollar product boss. So let's do this. Hey. Hey, Product bosses. Welcome back to another episode. I'm super excited to be here. It is just, I can't even believe where we are, that it's April and we're full on into Q2 and we're heading to Mother's Day and all the amazing things. So first off, I want to give you a quick tip. So right now, in this season, the things that you want to be thinking about, marketing, sending messages about, you know, putting product and offers out in front of your customers would be for Mother's Day, for graduation, and for wedding season. Okay, so I just want to give you that quick tip as we're in this, because a lot of times we're not sure what to market, we don't know what we're doing, like all the things. And so I wanted to just make sure that you felt covered in that now. So here's the deal, right? I think that, and you're right if you've ever thought this. So maybe you've made something, you started selling it, you don't understand why people aren't buying. Maybe you started selling your products and then you've hit a plateau or something has dropped or you're like, what is happening? What's broken in the machine? Or maybe you're literally just starting out and you've got this idea and you want to make it and you want to sell it, but you just don't know. Are people going to find you? Like, how do you stand out in a crowded market? All the things, right? So what I do know is a lot of you are probably feeling like this is so hard. And you're right, it does not need to be this hard. It shouldn't be this hard for you to get your dream customers to notice you and buy your stuff. But I know firsthand what it feels like to put your heart into something, to come up with this awesome idea that you're like, this thing is so amazing or I'm so proud of it or, or I had this great idea and I know people are gonna like it or the scent is amazing, or this tastes delicious or that's such a beautiful shirt. Like, whatever it is, right? I know firsthand what it feels like and that you're working overtime to try and do all the things, but somehow you still feel invisible. And that's how I felt, you know, when I launched Cuffs Couture back in the day, I told you I put in all this money, all this time into photos and building a website and making it beautiful and making sure, you know, all my I's were dotted and my T's were crossed and I launched it to literal crickets and I had no idea why. And I didn't know. I was like, if I launch this thing, they will come. If I put it out there into the universe, people will come and buy it. And my friend and her friend bought it and that was it. And so I kind of realized, you know, I think I'm doing something wrong. And the thing is that what I know how I felt and this is how I felt when I was starting out was I didn't feel like I could find traction. I didn't feel, well, what do I do next? I don't know what to do next. And I also felt like I had all these questions. For example, well, I was second guessing myself. I was like, who are my customers? Or why would they even want what I have? Or how do I even break through or stand out? What do I do? And another thing that I am telling you and you all know that I have, I've worked my feels like my whole adult life on money and pricing scarcity and all that. Is that I thought, you know, well, maybe it's priced too high. Maybe I need to lower my price. Maybe that's literally the only way to compete in the market. Maybe the price point, maybe if I just lower it, they'll Buy it. And then I also just felt like I was constantly chasing sales. Like, literally, I'm going to throw spaghetti at the wall. Okay? I came out with Cuffs Couture. They're wearable wrist wallets, but maybe I should make headbands and hair clips, and maybe I should make necklaces. I also made gloves, fingerless gloves. I'm telling you, I made a whole bunch of stuff. I was literally the expert at throwing spaghetti at the wall. Like Olympic sport spaghetti at the wall. And it didn't help. You know, it kind of confused the people that were already there. And then also, it just wasted my time at money. I was like, I loved the making. Don't get me wrong. I loved coming up with the ideas, but I spent more money on raw goods. Right? I had to buy for hair clips. I needed to buy the clips that they went on for necklaces. I needed to buy different types of findings, like the different hooks and chains and all that. There was all this other work I had to do. Then I had to take the photos, then I had to list it, and then I had to explain to people, well, yeah, we're Cuffs Couture, but you also need a necklace. Yeah. Or Cuffs Couture, but you also need, you know, a hair accessory to match your cuff. Did they, though, Right? So that's what causes exhaustion. That's what causes burnout. That's what causes you to want to throw the whole thing into a dumpster and light it on fire. Okay, but here's what I do want to say, and here's sort of what I started thinking through and, you know, and realizing, okay, wait, what is the issue that I'm actually facing? And what I realized is that if I'm not reaching the customers that I know match my product, then that's the issue I'm actually facing. So, you know, I was just thinking about this, and I was like, okay, so I can't find traction. What do I do next? Okay. Or who are my customers? Why would they want my product? How do I break through? Or I have to price lower? Or, okay, I'm going to chase sales. I'm going to just keep making more and more things. But the thing that you're missing, the thing that I was missing is that my customers didn't know I existed. And the target customer, my ideal customer, that this was actually the product for, didn't know it existed. And then I realized, oh, my goodness, I've missed some steps. So what I want you to know as you're listening to this is, it's not necessarily your product. Now this is, there are parts of your product there, you know, and what we cover this in our programs. We cover this inside of, you know, our mastermind and we even talk about this here on the podcast. There are so many steps. You've been hearing me talk about the product boss framework where we talk about ideating the product, making the product, coming up with the brand, marketing the product, selling it, operating it and then growing it. And so what I've seen is yeah, we were all growing. Great. We come up with the idea, we make the product, we jump to selling. But we've missed those steps. We've missed it. And you know what we've missed? We've missed branding, we've missed marketing and we've missed part of what's inside of the ideate it mode, which is that product market fit. That idea of who is my ideal customer. It's not everybody. It's, it's. You want to focus on one perfect ideal customer. I promise you other people will buy. But, but if you think that your Customer is a 25 to 65 year old woman who lives everywhere in the world, who shops at Target and likes unicorns, no, that's not an ideal customer. Right. So you really have to hone in on what the product is, who it's for, why they would buy it. Right. And then we need to, then we need to connect it to them. We need to make sure that the brand and the brand messaging is, is on par. We need to make sure that we are finding the customers and marketing to them. Hey, real quick, do you want to know what makes a successful product based business? You know the type of businesses who are making the most sales right now and even standing out against the big guys? Well, successful businesses this year are the ones who have nailed their core four foundational pillars. That's right. So here are the four things that they are nailing to stand out in a crowded market and get more sales. One, they're known for something. Two, their brand messaging speaks directly to their ideal customer. Three, they know what to sell and how to price it. And four, they have an easy to implement marketing plan. So if you want to get consistent sales and grow your business, you must nail down these four foundational pillars. If you're someone who's struggling to get customers, make sales or stand out in a crowded market, whether you're just starting out, you've been doing business for a while, or maybe you've even grown big, but you're feeling like you're hitting a plateau, then, my friend, the chances are that you might be missing one or more of these pillars. But don't worry because I am so excited to tell you that I am hosting a brand new masterclass where I'm going to give you my four step playbook to stand out in a crowded market and get more customers so that you can grow your business no matter what you sell or where you sell. So if you want to join now and get your free spot, it's going to be amazing. All you have to do is head to the productboss.com playbook to grab your seat today. That's the productboss.com playbook and I'll see you in there. Now back to the show. So what I knew, even though I had done it, but I, you know, I'd never run a, I could coach people through it, but I had made the mistake myself. And this could be the same reason why people aren't buying from you, that you may have jumped from making your product to selling it and you may have skipped over some super crucial foundational brand building steps. So, you know, the bad news is that if you're not doing this, if you're not building this brand in this right way, it's going to be very hard to make sales, very hard to sell if some of this is missing. But the good news is that you can learn this. So whether you're just starting out, awesome. You're so lucky to be hearing this now so that you're like, hey, you're not going to jump in and spend all this money and spend all this time and then be like me and not make sales. If you've started selling or trying to sell, but you're not, no one's buying, then. Okay, let's take a pause for a second, think, okay, what do we have to come back to? What do we have to nail in our business and like the brand building steps. And then if you've been selling and you've been successful to a point, but you've hit a plateau or you're not getting to that next level, honestly speaking, sometimes what was working may not keep working. Things have shifted, right? The market has shifted, the world continues to shift. Things just keep changing. So it might be that we have to go back and nail these foundations. And I tell, I'm telling you, this is the key to your next level of success. So when I coach people, and you've heard me coaching on this podcast, they've been students in our programs. That's how people end up being able to get coached by me on the podcast or they pay for a virtual intensive with me. So they, it's either they've invested or they're a student and then they submit to be able to work together. And you've heard these coaching sessions and I don't actually air everything that I coach them on. We, they're long sessions, some of them are two hours. And we cut it down into something that you all can listen to. And there's a lot I share with them that I teach people in my programs and I teach people when they work with me one on one. But I don't share necessarily on the podcast. And that's okay because I know you're all getting a ton of information. But what I know from coaching all of these people is that it's just kind of consistent. It's consistent of there's again, if I'm coaching someone who's almost at a million dollar business, someone who maybe hasn't even started making a thousand dollars a month, a lot of times I'll see the same sort of threads pop up. So they haven't really built a brand. That's one of the biggest things, you know, I've helped people make a million dollars on Amazon as a platform and they have not had to become a brand yet because Amazon or Etsy people search for a product as a solution, right? They're looking up something specific, custom birthday invitations or that's like an Etsy thing or like custom mom necklace that might be Etsy. And then if you're on Amazon, it might be like you're looking for hello Kitty birthday decor or you know, black and white swimsuit. And so they're looking for a product, they're not knowing a brand. And so one of the biggest, you can work like you can be successful, but I think that the long term success comes from building a standout brand. And you know, I think brand sometimes is a, is an intimidating word to people. So I'm going to actually look up brand definition on the Internet so it can tell you like, so you can kind of understand what a brand is and so you can say this is what it is. So a brand is a product, service or concept that is distinguished from others in the industry by a unique identity. A brand can be defined by its name, design, logo or other features. And consumers may associate a brand with particular attributes such as quality, quality, value and tastefulness. So a brand is this idea. If we think about major brands like Coca Cola, which is, I don't know, it's delivering it not maybe not delivering happiness, but there's like a happiness component to it. Nike, right? It's like giving top tier products to people who are athletes but then also want to be athletes. Right? People who want to live that lifestyle. So there's all these different types of brands out there that exist that we associate something with. For you to build a standout brand means we just have to have you associated with something for your ideal customer. So that they're just like, I know I'm coming to that company for that brand because I know what I'm going to get. Think about the companies you buy from. Even if we want to talk about Target, Target is a brand, you know what you go to Target for. So while they do carry brands in there, Target as a brand, especially like the Target labels, we know what we're going to get, we know what Target stands for us. It's still the biggest changeover that they ever had. I don't know if it was like last 20 years was that they started becoming like a trendy place. They had trendy apparel, they had trendy products, they had trendy home goods, they had things like that were cheaper prices which they used to not have, right? It used to kind of just be like off the rack basics. Like things that weren't necessarily a place that people who were aware of trends or wanted to be fashion on trend, right, fashion forward that they could buy from. So that's what a brand is. So when you do that and you're super clear on your customer and your, the why and your messaging and your ideal customer understands why they want your product or need it because you know how to communicate that effectively, that starts to make it easier for you to sell. That starts to make it easier for people to want to buy from you. And then the other part of this is that people just may not know you exist. And so while Multi Stream machine helps people, you know get onto more sales channels and get more eyes without them having to do some heavy marketing, you do still need a marketing plan. You still need a way to make repeatable sales. You still need a way to find your ideal customers, attract your ideal customers and bring them in and then you want to get them to buy your products. And a lot of times, my friends, again, it's not your product, it's kind of a brand messaging conversion issue. They might land there, but it doesn't match. They might see your products, they might see your labels, they might see your packaging and be like, not for me. Even though the product inside is so awesome or they might end up on your website or your Instagram page and while your product is awesome, they might look at it and be like, not for me. Or you might send them an email or a text message and it does not connect with them and they're saying not for me. Or they see you at an in person market and they walk by your booth or they don't buy. This is because it's not. These foundations are not nailed down. Some crucial steps were missed. This brand building aspect of it, of people, of attracting the right people and repelling the wrong people. And I promise you that's okay. We want to attract our ideal customers and you could make. Don't think I need to attract everyone. I'm not gonna be able to make any money. No, you can attract your ideal customers and be more successful than your wildest dreams and you can repel people and be more successful than your wildest dreams. Can I tell you how many times people tell me like, oh, you should teach service people? I have a podcast, I have an online education company, I've been an agency where I've helped design, develop and produce over 2,000 fashion brands. I've done it all, I've had a product business and people are like, oh, you know so much. You should teach everybody everything. Well, if I did that, I would be competing with other people that have niched down, that have nailed their messaging, that have like really connected with their ideal customer. Instead. I'm like, sure, everyone's welcome to hang around, but I'm only coaching people with physical products. People who make things and sell them, people who have cafes or, you know, food products or they're at home and they're artists. You know, there's. I'm not really for drop shippers, even though I know there's some drop shippers out there, but that's not a hundred percent where I'm at. And I'm not for MLMs. That's also not where I'm at. And people, you can glean advice, but I'm for those of you out there that are making things, whether you're hand making them, whether you're getting them manufactured and you're trying to sell them, or, or perhaps which is like the other side are people with retail stores that are sourcing products and then trying to sell them. So that's who is in my community. Those are my ideal audience and my ideal customers. And I know how to have a product market fit. And if I start to get out of that, then I start to be confusing to my customers. And so we would not be as successful as we are if, if we were for everybody. And so I want you to also think about that as well. So these are all the things, so please don't feel bad if you have skipped these steps. Right? Nobody's born with years of marketing knowledge in their brain, right? And mistakes are going to happen. I make them literally every day at each level of my business. Every day is new and different. But now you know that if you want a successful business, it's time to learn these foundations. It's time to get them on lock. And your brand, your messaging, your product will be undeniable and will help you get more customers and will help you stand out in a crowded market. Now, I am super excited because we are putting together an amazing masterclass for all of you that I'm going to be teaching. It's totally free. If you want to come and join me in this. I'm super stoked. And it is. It's free. And it's your four step playbook to stand out in a crowded market and get more customers so that you can grow your business no matter what or where you sell. So if you're tired of pouring everything into your business, but you're just not seeing the results you dream of, I'm going to teach you a super simple, proven framework to get clear on your brand, get more customers and grow your business. So if you want to save your seat, like I said, it's totally free. I'm going to be teaching it live. I think over three days. You can pick your time and place. Just head to the productboss.com playbook. It's the productboss.com playbook. I'll. I'll drop that in the show notes. And I've never taught it before and it's going to be so good. So this is for all of you, whether you're just starting out, whether you're building a side hustle or even selling for a while. Inside of this masterclass, I'm going to be teaching you the standout method, which is my entire playlist playbook, what I use and what I've learned over the last 20 years of helping build 2,000 fashion brands, as well as all of the people that I have coached over the last seven years and what I've seen as the biggest thing getting in their way. So you're gonna get that entire playbook for standing out against the competition and selling more so that, my friend, you can build your dream business. And that's what I'm here on this journey to help you with so it's the productboss.com playbook. I can't wait to see you inside and I'll see you in the next one. Thank you for being here and listening all the way through the Product Boss Podcast. If you love our show and it has helped you in any way in your business, would you mind doing two things for us? Subscribe to the show so you never miss an episode and leave us a review. 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