The half-hour of power
The simplest focusing exercise
I’ve done the same exercise with a few startups this week, figured I’d share it with you so you can DIY. It’s a really good exercise to focus on what really matters next year.
These startups have some traction, but feel scattered. Examples:
“Our sales cycles take anywhere from 2 weeks to 12 months, and we don’t understand why.”
“We serve a variety of different customers, and we’re not sure exactly where to double down.”
“Inbound works, but outbound doesn’t - we’re not exactly sure who to target or why people buy.”
“Our existing customers love us, but we can’t seem to grow fast.”
“There are so many ways to describe our product, so many value propositions and pain points we could message around; we’re not sure where to start.”
These are all symptoms of the same underlying problem: We don’t know the mechanics behind the “hell yes” case study we’re trying to replicate.
When we understand the hell yes case study and the underlying mechanics, we know:
Exactly WHO has demand, when, for which our supply is the best fit. If we reach out to people who don’t have demand, they won’t buy without serious education. If we reach out to people with demand, they pull, we don’t push.
Exactly WHAT they are trying to achieve, and what options they consider. Who are we *really* competing with?
Knowing these two things, we can derive everything else that matters - our messaging, positioning, outreach approach, pricing, etc. It is the ultimate focusing exercise. The only thing that matters is, when did our best-fit customers decide they needed to take action, and what shape of action did they need to take?
With this information, we can reverse-engineer who else we should talk to, what we should say to them. They should say “hell yes” too.
To do this, here’s a 3-step exercise that should take you 30 mins and cost you $0. It ain’t rocket science, but step 2 is tricky.
Step 1: Our best customers (easy)
Write out a list of your customers who:
Bought quickly
Are wildly satisfied post-sale
It’s important to do this as a list of individual customers, rather than doing any sort of grouping. When we create groups, we tend to ascribe qualities to the group that aren’t reflective of the individuals of the group (see: the top-down trap).
Step 2: When they bought, why they bought (tricky)
Here’s what doesn’t matter very much:
What pain points were they experiencing when they bought? (“Bitchin’ ain’t switchin’” - Bob Moesta.) People can cope for years without changing.
What did they like about your product? Nobody buys because of your value prop. They didn’t buy because it was “easy to use” or “had the integrations we needed.”
Something in their world, that you don’t control, makes your product and its value prop relevant. What we need to understand:
Why did they need to change? Why do anything at all?
What was the PROJECT on their Trello board when they decided they needed to change?
When they considered changing, what options did they consider and why did they choose us?
An example:
For Waffle, I’ve noticed in demos that potential customers really like that we’re the only AWS deployment solution that doesn’t lock you in - to our solution, to complex infrastructure. But that’s a value prop, that’s not WHY people buy.
Also for Waffle, I’ve noticed that potential customers usually complain about how difficult AWS is to use. But those are pain points people have dealt with forever; they can keep coping.
The PROJECT is something closer to - “Get our AWS ready for a SOC 2 audit.” The ideas of easiness and no-lock-in are useful and interesting - they’re why people choose us over alternatives when they need to change, but they’re not WHY people need to change. See the difference there?
Step 3: So what should we do? (obvious)
Obviously, we should try to replicate what works for our “hell yes” customers. Which usually means:
There is ONE obvious place to find those people - let’s put a toll booth there.
How we describe our product doesn’t currently make them say “hell yes! that’s for me!” In many cases, our current messaging actively dissuades them - let’s fix that.
We are doing a bunch of bullshit that isn’t exclusively focused on replicating our “hell yes” customers - let’s stop that.
So yeah, do that. What you realize in Step 2 is often so mind-bending, that step 3 & your path forward become stupidly obvious.
…
PS:
If you’re building a B2B startup, try out Waffle (website revamp in progress) for your infrastructure. SOC 2 compliant infrastructure, deployed into your AWS account, fast, with no AWS expertise needed. We’ll even set it up with you for free in a 30-min working session. Email me at rob@reframeb2b.com!
If you want to come through my bootcamp in the next 6 months… definitely recommend reaching out sooner vs. later. Last bootcamp for a while is happening in January! More info HERE.