Discover the simple hack that would have saved 9 /10 startup owners I speak to ≈2 years of hell
Depending on who you believe, anything between 50 and 90% of startups fail in the first year. And according to most reports, the number that make it profitably beyond 3 years is in single figures.
That’s SCARY. Yet year after year, more and more people still take the leap of faith and start their own business.
There are few things more exciting than a startup
I work with startup and small business owners every day and have done for the last 11 years. When many come to me, they’re so excited about their idea they can hardly stand still long enough to share it with me. I love that stage, share their passion, hold tight and enjoy the ride.
…but it’s not always plain sailing
When others come, they’re in the doldrums.
For some, they’re already so deep in the sh*t that even a magic wand would struggle to save them.
But for those that haven’t waited until the point of no return, it’s incredible what can be achieved with a relatively simple tweak.
Start up owners are smart
Every business owner that comes to me is bright, ambitious and (almost all) aren’t afraid of hard work.
They’ve spotted an opportunity in the market that they either have the skills to plug or that they can source or develop a product to plug.
They’ve done their homework; they’ve burnt the midnight oil perfecting their business model and they’ve drilled down to get their value proposition right. Most have even validated their solution, pricing, distribution and service vision by speaking to chunky samples of their target market.
So why do they end up feeling like the guy in the photo?
Startup checklist
It’s simple. Let’s go through the checklist:
Have they got a great product/service? — YES
Have they developed a sensible and sustainable business model? — YES
Do they have the right support network in place? — YES
Do they know who their buyers are? — YES
Do they know where those buyers hang out? — YES
Can they get to them? — YES
Have they checked with their buyers that their view of their problem/pain is right? — YES
Have they drilled down on their value proposition? — YES
Have they asked their target buyers if they’d part with the amount of hard earned cash they’re asking for to get the solution they’re offering? — YES
And is the answer yes? — YES
Are they hard working? — YES
Are they focused? — YES
Have they invested in a website that ticks their boxes? — YES (some have even invested thousands on their website).
Are they active on the social media? — YES
Have investors shown confidence in them? — YES (and in some cases, investors have believed in them so much that they’ve put 100’s of thousands of their hard-earned cash into the idea).
Their boxes are ticked
Pass this checklist by any consultant and they’d tell you that pretty much all the boxes are ticked. The road to success shouldn’t be too much of a hair-raiser. So what the hell’s wrong?
In terms of sales, their launch barely made a dent in what they’d hoped for. One month later there’s little change. Six months later, it’s even worse. A year in and even the (risk-savvy) investors are starting to get seriously pissed off.
After much head-scratching and deliberation they typically decide that their solution must be to blame. They make some (sometimes incredibly expensive) tweaks and amends. They work their balls off to (once again) get their product or service as great as it can be. But it’s not making any difference. What the hell’s wrong?
Here’s what’s wrong:
The buyers aren’t buying. The business owner understands their buyers’ pain. The potential buyers they’ve spoken to agree that their solution is attractive. They even agree that they’d pay the price they’re asking to get their hands on it. But they’re still not buying.
In all the effort they’ve put in, they’ve failed to invest the (relatively short) time it takes to make sure they’re speaking their buyers language. I’m not on about speaking French to Frenchies or German to Germans. I’m on about using the words their buyers use to describe their problem and the words they need to hear to know they’ve found a credible solution.
They haven’t set aside time in all the effort they’ve put into their startup to make sure they’re describing their buyers problem in the way their buyers do.
They’ve also failed to describe their solution in a way that’s attractive to their buyers.
They’re achieving success (more or less) where they have a face-to-face/telephone call opportunity to sell, but it’s tougher than they’d imagined. And online’s doing nothing for them.
They’ve invested in their online presence because that’s where their buyers are. It’s also where those buyers do their research and due diligence. They’ve even invested in promoting online (paid Facebook ads, LinkedIn ads etc). So why aren’t they selling?
Here’s why:
In (virtually) all the places their buyers can see them, they’re using language that their buyers don’t speak.
What they’re saying is 10x removed from their buyers’ reality. Would their buyers ever “get” what they’re saying? Maybe if they invested 10x the time they’re prepared to in their fleeting search for a solution.
This is why their buyers aren’t buying.
They don’t recognise their problem in what’s being said to them and because of that, they don’t stay long enough to uncover the solution they want.
Here’s how they got in this situation:
They described their buyer’s problem using their words, they described their solution solution using their words.
Don’t get me wrong, those words are grammatically correct, and what’s more, they’re often dead impressive and important-sounding. When a complete outsider reads them they’re impressed at the gravitas they give the startup. It sounds like a dead-cert to succeed. When their investors read them, they are in their comfort zone. When their friends and family read them they’re blown away and everso proud ;) No one had any reason to suspect they were barking up the wrong tree with the wrong words.
The problem: their buyer simply doesn’t ‘get it’.
The people who they want to hand over money for their solution don’t recognise their world anywhere in there. It’s simple. They’re not describing their buyers problem in a way that their buyer recognises it. Nor are they describing their solution in a way that has any appeal to their buyer.
The solution — what they should have done:
They should have kept it simple.
Take Uber. They don’t talk about world class, best of breed, top of the line or state of the art. They don’t tell us how different, unique or fantastic their solution is. No. They cleverly take us back to the last time we couldn’t get a taxi for love nor money and how pissed off that made us feel. They stir up emotions that makes us wonder what we’d have given to have the Uber app on our phone when we were 26th in the taxi queue in the pouring rain early last Sunday morning. Tap the app. Get a ride. Simple. Tap the app. Get a ride. No more, no less.
Or Apple. They compete in a marketplace where every other phone manufacturer and their dog is busy jockeying for position by boasting ever-longer, ever-more-complex feature lists. Apple doesn’t get involved in all that crap. What do they say? They say a phone should be ‘absolutely simple, beautiful, and magical to use’. In other words, f*&k your fancy features-list Mr Sony.
There are tons of examples. A shed-load of really successful businesses have perfected speaking their buyers language really well. Tons of my clients have too.
Let me show you how to do it…
I’m not arrogant enough to suggest that I’ve cooked up solutions like Uber’s or Apple’s for my clients in a couple of short sessions together. But what I have, and can do is help them rework what they’re saying about their solution so their buyers ‘get it’ and feel as if the solution on offer applies to them.
I help them rearrange their words in such a way that in the ±8-seconds they have to appeal to their buyers, they’re a whole load more likely to do so. I help them turn around what they say about their business so it speaks their buyers’ language, using their turn of phrase. That way their buyers ‘get it’, so the business owner’s in with a much better chance of getting some of their hard-earned cash.
I’ve helped 100s of businesses reach out to 1000s of buyers and make 1,000,000s of sales using this approach. And I can help you too. You’ve read the article, so you know what the problem is. You want the solution. Here’s the deal … I’ve just finished putting the finishing touches to my FREE Clarify Your Message in 15 Minutes Kit which shows you how to create a headline description of your product or service that gets your buyers attention quickly and without stress. Once you have it, you can use it across all your marketing channels. And the great news is, it’s available right here, right now.
DOWNLOAD YOUR FREE KIT NOW — PLUS — get the chance to work 1–2–1 with me for FREE
The first 3 people to reply to my Welcome Message that comes when you register for the Kit will get a FREE message making consultation.
This Kit unboxes everything you need to know to avoid the mistake >9 out of 10 startup and small business owners I speak to make. All you need to do is head over here and you’re in.
DOWNLOAD YOUR FREE KIT NOW — PLUS — get the chance to work 1–2–1 with me for FREE
The first 3 people to reply to my Welcome Message that comes when you register for the Kit will get a FREE message making consultation.
