Do I Need to Address a Hard Struggle?
In this podcast episode of The Disruptive Voice, Andrew Glaser shares this painful story of a product he put together:
He had a product concept. He showed it to people. They “predicted” that they’d buy it. He even won an award for the concept! He thought he had a good idea.
But the product didn’t sell. After swallowing that defeat, he searched for an explanation.
His realization:
“If there’s no struggling moment, there’s no progress to be made. There’s no innovation.”
(You can hear the whole clip about this story here, and the rest of the podcast is great too.)
But My Idea Is Different…
Let’s say you’ve got an idea for a product.
You spotted a need. Nobody is doing the thing you’re proposing. You’ve experienced the problem yourself. You might have even made a few sales.
But how will you know that your idea is solid?
In the previous article, I made my case. You need to have the two forces that propel the buyer towards purchase to be stronger than the two forces that pull back toward non-consumption. That’s the only way you’ll get enough purchase momentum.
It’s About Momentum
Using the lens of those Four Forces of the psychology of the buyer, we see that the struggle is just one of the forces.
So why is that that unless a person experiences a hard struggle, there’s no case for a product to be made?
That’s because the harder the struggle, the greater the momentum to find a solution.
What will create enough energy for a person to get off their chair, park all their other to-dos for later, and get started on the path to finding a fix? A hard struggle will get them to get off their chair.
What will make someone go out of their way to find a product like yours? A hard struggle will.
A hard struggle will create momentum. That’s basically free help for your sales. But is it required?
Do I Need to Find a Hard Struggle?
No, you dont need to. But why would you waste your energy otherwise?
If you don’t have a hard struggle:
- You need to rely on your sales prowess;
- You need to rely on making the case for your product;
- You need to sell the benefits more (feed the attraction force);
- You need to work harder to remove all objections (reduce the anxieties force);
- You need to rely on reducing the price to get people to buy your thing;
- You need to interrupt people, because they won’t come to you;
- You need to convince people more, because otherwise, they will default back to whatever they’ve got that’s good enough (the strongest force of all, the habits force).
If You Do Find a Hard Struggle
Then you will…
- Be confident that you’ve got something solid;
- Know the actual situations that cause someone to go out and find a solution;
- Have great anecdotes and great words to use at the top of your landing page. Your visitors will feel that they’re in the right place;
- Be able to concentrate on how to help your buyers spread the word by helping them recognize when others around them are feeling the same struggle. It’ll be an authentic endorsement;
- Know when not to try convincing a potential buyer, because you’ll know they’re not yet feeling the struggle hard enough. Discern when to spare your efforts.
So be cool. And spot the hard struggles. That’s the gold you’re looking for.
Stay Sharp!
—
Pascal Laliberté
@pascallaliberte