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Finding a customer to make a sale vs making a sale to find a customer

The way you think about sales dramatically impacts the growth of your business. 

When you are finding a customer to make a sale, you are thinking short-term, about promotions, about putting your product in front of many people so that someone would buy. And then you rinse and repeat. 

But when you make a sale to find a customer, your thinking shifts. Because once you have found the customer, your number one concern is to nurture that relationship and make sure they are delighted, so they bring referrals. In this case, your customers become your sales force. And your cost of acquisition drops. 

When you make a sale, and the customer is not telling anyone, your product or service is likely not that good. And that is normal when you begin. You need to continue to iterate on it, have conversations with your customers and improve it. Asking for feedback is crucial if you want to create value for your audience and not just for yourself. You might discover that what you thought was high-value, your customers actually don’t care for it. 

Another shift that happens when you focus on your relationship with the customers and not the sale is that you focus on creating value over time for that same customer. Then they might choose to pay for a subscription or purchase different, more expensive items from you. They are now on a journey with you, instead of getting their money and forgetting about them. 

I have only recently discovered this for myself, so I am looking for ways and tools to help me build that relationship with old customers and allow them to help me make my offers better. 

(credit Alex Hormozi)

don't waste time creating new products.

Don’t waste your time creating new products

Here is a mistake that I have made way too many times. 

I have this bright idea for a new product or service. I am so excited about it! But, I want to keep it a secret least someone would steal it from me. 

I work hard to implement it, test it, polish it. I am making sure it looks like how I imagined it. 

After months of effort, I finally launch…

… to crickets. 

There is no one out there who cares about my product or service, let alone steal it. 

The problem is that this is a selfish way to create a product or a service. You are choosing to work in a void in your head, and you are not doing it for an audience, so you never bother to ask for feedback or even ask if they need such a product. 

A better way is to test your assumptions before you spend any time building stuff. Building a useless product costs you time and money that you could have used to make something relevant and remarkable.

Testing can be as simple as saying this: 

“Here is what I am working on next. What do you think? Would you spend $100 for early access and an opportunity to give feedback on how I make it?”

Two things can happen:

  • less than ten people signup for the early access: good! – you thank and refund everyone and let them know there is not enough interest to build the thing. Don’t skip the “thank you” part, as they are your biggest fans! And now you just saved time, money, and effort that you can put into testing the next idea.
  • a lot of people signup – good! – the pressure is now on to build the thing, and you have feedback from people that will help you make it very relevant. You also get testimonials for the official launch date. Again, make sure to reward the early adopters for making this possible.

New Normal – Collaboration Tools – Trello

Trello – The playful and pretty way to manage a project

If you are a fan of using post-it notes to organize your projects, you will love this next tool!

This post is part of the “New Normal – Collaboration Tools” series, and we are going to look at Trello.

Trello is so simple that it can be explained with just the picture below:

The idea is to use cards, organized in lists, to keep track of what is going on in the project. And the most simple version is to have the three classic lists:

  • To do 
  • Working On In
  • Done 

As you have guessed, you choose a card from the “To Do” list and move it to “Working On It” and when you finish, you move the card to the “Done List.”

So why is this so powerful, and not just use sticky cards on a real board? 

This series is called “Collaboration” tools, so that is where the power is. The Trello boards can be shared with teams of people. Now everyone can see the lists and move the cards around. This way, you can easily coordinate. For example, two people cannot pick up the same card to start working on it. Everyone has a clear picture of the status of the project by looking at the board. 

And the goodies don’t stop here! 

Each card can have its own comments – keeping the discussion always linked to the correct context.

The cards can have checklists – those can be used in very creative ways. For example, you can fragment the work further in sub-tasks, you can have a list of prerequisites that you are waiting to be fulfilled, and so on.

And the cards also have attachments. Attachments allow you to link relevant files to the card so the team can easily find them and access them as needed.

You can assign the card to someone, and you can set a due date! 

The interface is very friendly, playful, and easy to grasp! But make no mistake, Trello is not a toy. If you have time to dig into it, you will discover that it is an amazingly powerful tool. 

How to choose between Trello and Asana? 

If you are just starting with project management online, go with Trello. The free tier will serve you well for a long time. Asana is more complex and not as easy to learn. The only reason I am using Asana over Trello is due to my own resistance to change :).