Most startup business owners start their business by thinking about the product or service they are offering. They fail to answer the most important question that every business owner must answer:
Why should I, the customer, choose your product or use your service over all of the other options available?
To answer this question, you really must have a vision of your ideal customer in your head. Better yet – write it down. Think about your ten best customers and answer the following questions about them (if you don’t have customers, then you better do some research so you can answer these questions):
- What niche are they in?
- What industry are they in?
- What is their age?
- What is their gender?
- Where do they live?
- What is their education level?
- What do they read?
- What groups do they belong to?
- How did they first hear about you?
- Why do they continue to buy from you?
- What are their problems? Better yet, what are the problems that they wish they could solve?
- Why do they buy?
- How are my competitors solving my customers' (or potential customers') problems?
- Who else influences the customer’s buying decision?
Now think about your product or service and answer these questions:
- What can I do better or faster than my competitors to meet my customers’ needs?
- How does my product or service solve a problem the customer is having?
- How is my solution different from the solution my competitor is offering?
- What guarantee or promise can I give that my competitor isn’t offering?
- How can I communicate this advantage to the customer in one sentence or less?
Answering these questions almost guarantees that you will make it clear to your customer that your product/service is such a “smart” decision that the customer really has no option but to buy from you.