What is the Purpose of Your Business?
Every organization that has a reason to start its business is created with a strong Mission to provide the best solutions to customer problems. Promoters of business have in their wisdom chalked out a grand purpose to serve the community. It is much beyond simply making a Profit.
“The most powerful purpose statements look beyond profit” Courtesy
Though it is essential for sustenance, there is a greater mission. That is why it is necessary to have a Mission statement clearly.
Best solutions to customer problems
You do not exchange some product or service for money. But in fact, you provide the best solutions to customer problems.
You ask these two basic questions.
- What is one unsolved problem of my customers?
- How can my product or service can give a satisfactory solution in a unique way?
- Unique selling proposition and great user experience are only possible with the above question -answers!
Apart from sales, you have a commitment that you set out voluntarily. And that is your product has to solve a customer problem uniquely. It should free them from some nagging, frustrating problems for which they are unable to find a satisfactory solution.
Basic Solutions you Propose to offer
As we have always stressed, it is advisable to focus on a Micro Niche. You have studied that industry fairly enough to offer your best solutions to problems faced by them.
This insider know-how is important for your customers to take you seriously.
How is your product or service going to help them?
- Will increase the production capacity
- Improve the quality of the end product.
- Reduce use of raw materials, reduce wastage.
- Will save energy cost
- Help to contain pollution.
- Ease labor
Besides these production-related considerations, you might offer help in marketing, better management of labor, finance, Warehousing, saving taxes, etc.
Customer Need of the Hour
Customer needs are dynamic. So, it is well nigh impossible for you to bring about a solution that they can pick and choose as the need arises. But what is generally done is focus on one area which you are good at and which is faced by the industry widely.
If the robust system of solutions you have, you may interactively offer that solution. But only a few large enterprises can do this
Networking With Other Solution Providers
Thinking creatively, you can think of networking with others to find out who offers solutions to problems other than what you do.
This way you could easily help your customer in many ways.
The Myth of Customer Persona
Digital Marketing experts advise for a campaign to be effective, you must profile your prospect persona.
Clayton M. Christensen, an academic and a business consultant, views that just because someone fits in your description is no guarantee that he/she would become your consumer. Far from it. Instead of wasting your efforts to target them, you would do well to search for people who need your product or service addresses.
Anybody thinking logically will agree with him. It is the compelling situation that makes purchase decisions rather than the personal attributes.
Therefore we should focus our attention on the customer needs.
Identifying your target audience
Having understood the dynamics of customer behavior, our next step is how to go about it.
Identify where the prospects are searching for solutions for problems that you can solve.
Forums, industry circles, LinkedIn groups, and other social media are the ones you can find them.
Another definite source is the longtail keywords.
Posting content for these long-tail keywords will certainly attract your prospects. Even spending money on ads will bring better conversion.
Customer Validation
Customer validation is the process carried out by the product development process. You can not develop a product based on assumptions. Therefore, to verify and ascertain that we are going to come out with something that customers are really in need of.
To this end, you can conduct interviews with prospects and analyze their inputs. Then there is another angle that you have to look at. It is the Market survey
Market Survey to Find feasibility
It is perfect so that you have validated your product design by taking all factors into consideration But before you start developing the product, you have to take into account the economic viability. Suppose your cost of development, distributed through the estimated sales does not justify the marketable price, then it is not feasible.
Metric of Market Survey
So, you conduct a market survey and find out whether your estimated market share can generate enough sales to offset the development cost. And over and above you need to make a profit.
For the digital arena also you have to apply these metrics equally.
Added to this the life-cycle of the product has to justify the cost.
Therefore make sure out of the existing market, your share is sufficient to offset your development cost and for profit.
Also, this market share should be there for a reasonable period.
Uncertain Factors and Risk
After you have considered all these can we say that the product will bring in huge profits? According to Clayton Christensen, the creator of the ‘disruptive business model’ it also depends on luck. He recounts his many years of experience as a consultant. We can not brush aside. It is the risk any entrepreneur faces.
The antidote for this is relentless effort and constant progress towards the goal.
As one wise man said, it is not positive thinking but only realistic thinking that helps you to survive in your endeavor.