Understand your audience’s needs, wins, challenges and barriers.
Introduction
Welcome back to the Coaching Hive Podcast!
When you start a business, it can feel like you’re throwing spaghetti against the wall. You know what I’m talking about? You’re looking for what’s going to stick, what isn’t, what will work, what won’t, and that’s a really common feeling, but it doesn’t have to be that way. There are lots of things that are common in this world, but with a little bit of pre-work, pre-planning, some insights, you know what doesn’t have to be common? After all, you can start a business and even build a business without throwing any spaghetti against the wall. You can use the tools and the resources and the wisdom of others that are out there to guide the way. After all, who wants to clean up a wall or a cabinet after throwing spaghetti against it? I know I don’t.
Today, as we enter a new year, we are going to be talking about creating an offer that works for your audience and for you, and I’ll share some of my favorite resources for doing this and send you off with an action item for the week. So if you’re ready, grab your pen and paper and let’s dive in.
Understanding Your Audience
When I first started the Coaching Hive, I was focused on health coaches and helping them to continue growing in their coaching skills. After certification. I wasn’t focused at all on building businesses, but what I quickly realized is that the market isn’t established enough for what I wanted to offer. The market didn’t really want what I was creating, and I was to put it mildly, throwing spaghetti noodle after spaghetti noodle against the wall. I did all of the right things, but because the offer itself wasn’t what my audience wanted, it was not as successful as I would’ve hoped. Luckily, I have been learning from some really successful, really insightful leaders and realize this pretty quickly. So I didn’t just spend my wheels and there were a few things that I did that made a difference and help me dial in what to offer and who to serve in my business.
And today I want to spend some time sharing those insights, those nuggets of information with you, so that as you begin this new year, you aren’t just simply saying New year, new opportunities. You’re saying New year and new possibilities, but you’re doing it from a place of knowledge and wisdom and insight rather than just trying to throw spaghetti and the wall.
Now, I don’t know about you, but when I first started to build an offer, I was thinking about myself and what I wanted to offer. Here’s the very first thing that you need to think about when you’re building any offer in your business. Start with your audience. Think about who they really are. Who are you trying to help? You really need to get to know them.
You need to understand what’s going on in their life. What are their pain points? What do they need help with? What’s going really well? And they just would love to shout that from the rooftops. You need to understand what barriers they have to making things happen, to making those pain points go away. You need to understand what resources they have available that can help them overcome those pain points.
And as you begin to understand your customer or your client as you think about your services and your products that you’re offering, when you understand their pain points and really start to think about how you can help them with what they actually want help with, then you’re starting to get somewhere. Think about what you can offer them that will be of service, that will make their life better, easier, less complicated, more pleasurable, less confusing, even just simpler, or taking a step out of a process for them so that they don’t have to worry about it all the time.
I hear people saying, well, yeah, you could get that for free, but guess what? People don’t always want to just search the internet for hours upon hours to find that free, that solution for free. They would much rather just pay a person, get that solution delivered right to them and be on their way. So when you start thinking about what can you offer that will help your client or customer, I don’t want you to be deterred by the fact that maybe it’s already out there for free. I will never forget.
There’s a story that Stu McLaren tells, and he said that he was trying to figure out all of the stuff for his home studio, and he could have searched and searched and searched, but he said, you know what? I don’t have the time. I don’t want to search through all of the free forums and websites and reviews to figure out what’s going to work best in my situation. You know what? I just want someone to tell me what to buy. And so he paid for a service that would tell him what to buy. Now, all of that information was out there for free, but just like I said, not everyone wants to spend the time, the energy, the patience to look through all of those free resources. So don’t be deterred if your offer is already out there in a free version or maybe in multiple different places that they could find it all. You compiling something actually could be a great offer because it simplifies your client’s life, especially if one of their pain points is time. If they don’t have enough time, you can simplify things.
So start with your audience, really learn more about who it is you are trying to help, and then get to know their pain points. Get to know what they need help with, get to know what their wins are, what their challenges are, what the barriers are in their life, in their business, whoever you serve and figure out how you can make their life just a little bit easier, what can you offer that will help them alleviate or reduce or eliminate the pain point that you have uncovered? And as you do this, start getting really clear, really specific with your offer. Make sure that it’s actionable.
One of my favorite ways to work through these kinds of questions is with Ryan Levesque’s book called Choose. And I’ll drop a link in the show notes for a $10 copy of the book, which is cheaper than you can get it on some of the other platforms. I’ll give you a link for that.
But Ryan walks you through the steps needed to find a market to develop your offer, to even explore the words that you need to use to attract the right clients. And I use his method every day in my business and recommend the book to any business owner. Again, it’s called Choose by Ryan Levesque. And it allows you to do what I’ve shared with you already, which is to kind of start with your audience. Think about the pain points, what you can offer them, what’s already out there. We’ve talked a lot about that on the podcast. Going to Amazon, going to Google, seeing what words are being used, understand what pain points your clients and customers are experiencing so that you can offer them a solution or a guidance, some kind of guidance to help them with that pain point.
Once you have an idea, here’s the next step. I want you to follow up with your audience and ask them what they think about your offer. Are they satisfied with it? Do they need more? Do they need something different? The easiest and the best way to do this is what so many leaders recommend, and it’s called a lot of different things. You might hear it called a seed launch, a founding member launch, a proof of concept launch, a beta launch. They’re all essentially the same thing with slightly different names. Every version has you kind of testing out your offer, making sure that it’s what your client wants, and then asking them for input to clarify where you need to make adjustments.
You aren’t simply creating this offer without talking to anyone, putting it out there and hoping for the best. That’s spaghetti against the wall.
If you build an offer, get the outline, get some of the details figured out, and then share it with your audience and say, Hey, I’ve got this opportunity and it’s kind of a founding member thing. It’s not fully built out yet, but I want you to be in on the ground floor. I’d love your feedback, your input. I’d love to know what you need more of. And together we will build this offer, this opportunity, this service, this product so that it really meets your needs. And in fact, this week I’m doing exactly that. I am doing a founding member launch of my Entrepreneur Membership.
When you do a founding member launch following Stu McLaren’s approach, it’s a great opportunity to build an offer with your clients alongside them. And yes, you have to have the basics, like I just said, but you get feedback and you get to make adjustments, and your clients get a lower price as a thank you. They also get to contribute to the process and explore what they need to be successful.
If something like a founding member launch sounds kind of interesting to you, maybe you’re thinking about a membership for your business, I’ll drop a link to some of ST’s materials in the show notes so that you can grab those free resources from him. They are fantastic. Okay, so so far we’ve talked about a few different things. You need to start with your audience because we don’t just want to throw spaghetti against the wall, hope for the best, hope that it sticks. And your business is the success you have to engineer that success, starting with knowing your audience. What are their pain points? What do they need help with? What can you offer them that will help, that they will use that they need, that they want? And then be really clear and concise with your offer, make sure it’s very specific and that it’s actionable. And I suggested two different kinds of resources for you, Ryan Levesque, Choose book. And like I said, I’ll drop a link in the show notes for you for a $10 hardcover copy of the book. It’s a fantastic resource. It’s one I pull out time and again.
I’ll also share with you a link or a couple of links to Stu McLaren’s, free resources on building memberships. And I am sure you will find information on a founding member launch approach in there as well. And that brings me to our action item for the week.
Action Item
This week, I’d like to invite you to look at the offer you currently have or are developing in your business. And then take a step back. If you were coming to this offer as an outsider, would you know who the offer is for? Does it actually say what pain points are you solving? Have you clearly said, if you’re experiencing X, Y, and Z, it doesn’t have to be in those words, but very clear, is it clear what pain points you’re solving? Is it clear what this person might need help with? Would you know why it’s absolutely critical to say yes to your offer right now rather than waiting another six months to take advantage of it?
You need to be able to answer all of these questions when you look at the offer that you are presenting to your clients and customers. And if you want to level up, because it is a new year, and I know we all have that great momentum, enthusiasm, and motivation for a new year. If you want to level up with your action item this week,
I would encourage you to share your offer with someone and ask them these same questions. Who is the offer for? What are the pain points that are being solved? What does this person need help with? Why is it critical to say yes right now? And the key here is to be open to hearing what they say. Gosh, this is so difficult because it probably won’t be what you’re expecting, and it may not be what you want to hear. The thing is you eat, sleep and breathe your business, but not everyone does. And chances are you are going to need to make some adjustments to your offer because it’s just not quite clear enough. Maybe it’s 99% there, but boosting it. That extra 1% for clarity may make a difference. It’s scary to share your offer with the world and say, tell me what you think. Who is this for? What pain points am I solving? Does this really make sense?
But know that I would never ask you to do something that I’m not willing to do or have done in the past. In fact, like I mentioned, I’m going through this process right now with the brand new Entrepreneur Membership. I’m sending invitations to join as a founding member. I’m sharing my offer with a few close entrepreneurial friends to get their feedback, and I’m offering a lower price for those who are willing to step into the process with me, because it is a process. The offer isn’t fully built, it won’t be fully functional until the beginning of February. But in these next few weeks, I can bring a group of entrepreneurs together. We can share feedback, I can get their feedback, hear their ideas, implement them, test things out, and in the meantime, they get to grow their business, work together, build community, and start networking and collaborating in a really great way at the start of 2023.
So take a chance this week, do the action item level up, send it to someone that you know who’s going to be honest and with their thoughts, with their ideas, with how they interpreted your offer.
Conclusions
As we wrap up for this very first episode of 2023, let me wish you a very happy New Year, productive new Year. We are really off to the races with a focus on your offer and making sure that you’re asking the hard questions. Don’t assume that you know what your clients will want, but instead really dig into what they say they want. Think about how you can help them get really clear on the wording you use to share your ideas so that it resonates with them.
And if you’re interested in taking the next step in your business, holding yourself accountable, exploring the possibilities of building your business with a community, send me a DM and I’ll share more about the Entrepreneur Membership.
As always, I’ll see you back here next week for another episode of the Coaching Hive Podcast, where a focus on mentoring and community and implementation removes the overwhelm of building your successful and profitable business and adds in a dose of momentum.
Until next time, have a healthy, safe, and happy week.
