The magic question to find out what will sell before you even build it!

Hey, folks, it's Kimberly Haubscheid from Entrepreneurs Rocket Fuel, and I am in beautiful Fort Lauderdale, Florida today. The weather is absolutely gorgeous. The people are amazing, having a lot of fun. I actually had a really good discussion with one of my students today with regard to making sure that you know what your customer wants. And I know that seems like, straightforward and easy because you assume what they want and you've been through it enough that you know what they want. But one of the most important things you can do as an entrepreneur is to actually ask, like, just put it out there and actually say something like, hey, what can I do to make your life a little bit better that makes your what you need to get out of this program or this service or this product just that much better. What can I do in order to make it more powerful as an experience for you? And when you ask that, you actually get information that you never would have thought of yourself. And now this. I've told many people a couple of stories about this. One was the first time I ever did a course. I had all kinds of plans for what I was going to teach in my six weeks. And then my mentor said, hey, why don't you put up a big white sheet in the very beginning and ask your students when they come in the first day, what do you want to learn? And I thought, oh, no, absolutely not. That would make me not look like the expert, right? Then I'm supposed to know what they need to learn. So how could I possibly ask that just makes me look not like the expert. Totally false. Absolutely false premise. I went ahead and did follow the guidance of a mentor that I had, which you should definitely consider doing. If you've ever resisted following the guidance of a mentor, definitely consider not resisting that. So I went ahead and put up a white board, a white sheet of paper up, and we actually jotted down a whole bunch of stuff that they wanted to learn. And I remember the physical change in my body thinking, wow, I never would have thought that they didn't know that or that they needed to know that I can absolutely teach that. But that was a surprise. And I probably wouldn't have taught that had they not. Had I not asked, right, just ask what they really want to learn. The second one is I actually had a mastermind group that I was running one time, and a bunch of people came in, and we had one person get on the hot seat, said he was having a lot of trouble with a business he had just launched. And so I said, absolutely, let's get you on the hot seat. Now hot seat is where one person, it's usually in a mastermind or a group of like minded people who can help you with an issue or a problem. So one person sits on what we call a hot seat. Basically it's just that person is the focus of the time and attention of the other people. So they get on the hot seat and share their problem, share what it is that's wrong or they're having struggles with. And then the other people, once they're finished with that, they actually chime in with suggestions and answers and helpful tips and things like that. Now the trick with a hot seat is that usually the person in the hot seat says things like, oh no, that will never work and here's why. Or yeah, I already tried that and it's not going to work. And the trick with a hot seat, if you're ever on one, is just to say, thanks, that was helpful. Now the reason that you do that is because you don't want to shut down the other suggestions as soon as you say, nope, I already tried that. The other people who have other suggestions in the room will be like, oh, they're just not even going to listen. So they won't offer those suggestions. So if you're ever in a hot seat situation where somebody else is helping you, what you need to do is say thanks, that was helpful. Don't offer a whole lot of clarity or explain why it's not going to work or explain that you already tried that because honestly, it just shuts down the creativity in the room. So we made that rule up front. So he tells us his problem, here's his problem. So he said, you know, I created this video series and it was, it was about how to do marketing, right? And it was a 12 video series and we recorded it in high 4K. I actually had some people fly in to record this specifically on our, on a, like a really high level, get excellent production quality, recorded all 12 videos. I think the videos were two hours long each or something really enormous. And he said, and I packaged it up in a really good program, put it online on an online learning platform and then put it up for sale. And I got crickets. And what he meant by that is he didn't get any sales, he didn't get any noise, he didn't get any comments, he didn't get any, anything. It just was silence and you could hear the crickets chirping, right? So we call him Crickets. He's lovely guy. But yeah. And he said, I want to know What I did wrong and I thought, well, many things, sweetheart, but actually the most important thing is the number one thing that we talked about in the beginning of this video, and that is ask your clients what they want before you create a program, right? So ask your clients what they actually wanted. Now, if he had gone out and done some market research and found out exactly what they wanted, in what way it should be delivered, in how many videos, in how many, whatever, if you survey your audience in advance of actually creating a product or service, then you can create a product or service that they want. Not your best idea for a product or service, because what you think is awesome is. Is awesome for you. So if you're selling it to you, fantastic. You just made a really great sale. But if you're selling it to other human beings on the planet, you're going to need to find out what they want to buy. All right? Now, there's a difference between what they need to buy, what they need to what they want to buy, and what they need to have. And there is sometimes a discrepancy in that. So sometimes people want to buy like a super easy program to launch something. Like, you know, if you're buying a CRM, you want something super easy. And so you're going to sell super easy, you're going to sell fast to implement, you're going to sell all of those things. But what they actually need on top of that is a robust software that's not going to let them down later. So you give them what they need and you sell them what they want. All right, So I hope that was. It was kind of a lot of information and a couple of different stories, but I hope that was helpful for you as you're developing new products and services in your business. Definitely some survey your market, make sure that you know what they are looking for, what they want to buy, and what you could do to make their life a little bit easier and a little bit more amazing in 2020 or as you're rolling out this new program, what you could actually do to serve them better. And there's nothing wrong with actually focusing on your customer and making sure that you're serving them in the best way possible. Number two is just make sure that when you're out there that you are serving your customer and you're not serving yourself. Right? I mean, definitely serve yourself, too. You got to make this about what you want, but if you're going to sell it to other people, you got to make sure it includes what they want. All right, so give them what they need and sell them what they want is a really good methodology. Just be sure that you're actually giving them what they need along the way. All right, folks, this was kind of a long one. I'm Kimberly Hobshad with Entrepreneurs Rocket Fuel in beautiful Fort Lauderdale, Florida. It's totally great to be an entrepreneur on the go on travel, to be sort of a nomad, if you will, and be able to see some beautiful beaches and work from anywhere. If you don't already have a mentor or a guide or a coach or somebody amazing and fun that you're working with that's going to help you get your business to the next level and help you get to where you want to go. I would love to talk to you. Go to entrepreneursrocketfuel.com apply and fill in an application. You and I will get on the phone, we'll chat a little bit about where your business is and where you want it to be and. And where you want to go in the world and how you want to show up in the world. And if I don't have a program or service that works for you, I'll just ask you for permission to make sure that I can refer you out to somebody amazing, because I have an incredible network of really great human beings that can help you get to where you want to go. If I'm not it, I'm definitely going to recommend that you talk to somebody else. But if you don't have a mentor or a guide or coach, definitely go out and get one, because they can help you expedite to where you want to go a lot faster. All right, folks, I'm Kimberly Hobscheid with Entrepreneurs Rocket Fuel, and I look forward to working with you. Cheers.