One of the best ways to pivot or adjust when a market changes dramatically – or, indeed, when a global ‘Aaaaaah!’ disrupts practically every industry and every economy – is to find a cork and offer it for sale.
As in: if you suddenly find that your normal buyers don’t buy the same way and at the same speed they used to: figure out what ‘leak’ they have in their ‘boat’, and find a way to plug it.
Because crisis or not, there are always ‘good to solve’ problems in the world of your buyers, but also ‘need to solve’ problems..
And at times like these, especially in B2B sales, there’s very often a ‘need to solve, right now’ problem.
Find that, build a solution, and ask if they want it.
Identify the leak they can’t plug, and offer to do it for them. Sell a cork.
I wanted to show you the system I built for that last week, but it turns out I had to redesign the system. Something that only became clear this morning, while showing the system to a rather savvy leadership coach.
I’ve spent the rest of the day redoing the system, and will proceed to recording an explainer video asap – apologies for the delay.
Meanwhile, think of these, the four core steps of the system:
1. Segment and survey:
Who’s on your list? Who has bought before? What segments do you have there?
Next, talk to people. What leak do they have going on? (google ‘customer development interviews’ for a broader look on how to survey, the way startups often do it).
2: Extract and design
Your intellectual property, that zone-of-genius work you do: get it out on paper.
Then, knock it into a package you can offer for a very specific, narrow solution, for a segment that is the most likely to need it – and want it.
3: Show up and sell
“Look, you said you needed this kind of cork. I’ve built it, it’s ready, I made this for you. Do you want it?”
4. Iterate and optimise
Look at the data: who responded? Who didn’t? Are they qualified? Why yes, or no?
What buy blockers can you identify? How can you remove them and go for more sales?
Those four steps, that’s just the very core of the system, but it goes much much deeper and I believe it’s going to make a difference.
Watch your inbox for the video I’ll be sending…
Cheers,
Martin
