What Is Your Product Really?
I am re-launching a series that has proven to be extremely helpful to small business owners. 10 core elements essential to your business. This week’s focus in product, and more specifically, the question:
What is your product really?
When I was new to the small business management industry, when I would network and have conversations with people about what I do, I learned quickly that I didn’t really know what my product was. When asked what I did or what my product was, I would say “I talk with small business owners” and when someone would ask me to tell them more or explain to them what my process, system, or method of operation was, I couldn’t. I was left thinking, how do I explain my product?
I task you to clearly define your product. Get out a piece of paper and write down the steps that you walk through and that your clients walk through, because that’s where your product begins. What do you do when you first start talking to your clients? What happens next and what do they get out of it? What value do they get out of each step? Your clients need to trust that you have the process and drive to move them along and to get them to a place they haven’t been before. As a leader for them, you bring greater value to their business and more clarity to their life. Your goal is to be paid for your time and fulfill your purpose and you accomplish that by being able to show and prove how your work improves their work.
How do you tell the customer what you do?
Once you’re clear on the features of your product, now look at your product from their position. Describe the service you offer or product you have in a way that shows them what value they will get out of it. Take for example a product as simple as a highlighter. A highlighter helps your client to more easily find the important part of their document, which in turn helps them to save time. That is the practical need that your product meets, it states what it does and how it directly affects their work.
But your product is more than the physical thing you’re delivering. Speak also to the higher need of what your product offers, which is the part that helps them fulfill their vision. Is their higher need clarity, freedom, abundance, to be a better parent, etc.? Speak to their higher need and talk to them about how it helps them be a better person, and to run a better business, etc.
When you are clear on what exactly your product is, not only are you better able to communicate to people who inquire, but also you are better able to helps clients see the value your product adds to their life and business.