Reading Time: 2 minSomething I see many companies struggle with, and I tend to fall into quite a bit too, is trying to promote features as benefits. While features of a product should lead to benefits for the customer, they shouldn’t be positioned as such. Custom Post Types For example, a feature that we include on many websites […]
Business
Do you need to buy ads to sell your product?
Reading Time: < 1 minI hope not. That’s not to say that buying advertising is a bad thing, as it can certainly help your product be seen by more potential customers, but if advertising is your only hope then you’re likely in big trouble. Albert Lasker put it this way: “The product that will not sell without advertising will […]
Offer less jam
Reading Time: 2 minWhen coming up with variations of your product, it can be tempting to keep making more. After all, more choices mean that more people will find something they like, right? In some cases that might be true, but most of the time fewer choices will lead to better outcomes. A 2000 experiment from psychologists Sheena […]
The cycle of simple
Reading Time: < 1 minI’ve noticed a pattern in a few areas of business that goes roughly like this: Simple –> Complex –> Simple Websites The first place I’ve noticed this is with website design. When someone is just starting out, they build very simple sites. As their skills improve, they load websites up with more bells & whistles […]
Reading versus studying
Reading Time: 2 minA little over a year ago I shared my shortcut of using Blinkist to read book summaries in about 20 minutes versus the hours it takes to read a full book. There are advantages both ways, but I’m finding that Blinkist helps meet the Pareto Principle — I’m getting 80% of the value of the […]
Authenticity > Automation
Reading Time: < 1 minA few days ago, I received an email from a company that could “help us out”. Among other things, they promised to show us great ways to do telemarketing, email blasts, and ways to automate our connections and messages on LinkedIn. If you’ve followed this blog much at all, you know that I detest automated […]
Your product doesn’t need to be perfect
Reading Time: 2 minYour product isn’t perfect, and that’s probably ok. In most cases, the perfect product doesn’t exist, so you just need to have the best available option. Take any product that is considered to be best in class, and you can quickly find some issues with it. The iPhone doesn’t offer some of the flexibility of […]
Data beats Modal Bias
Reading Time: < 1 minThe concept of “modal bias” is simply the thought that our idea or approach is best. We all think that, but it can become much more troublesome when a HiPPO (the highest paid person in a meeting) falls into that trap and we all need to follow it. Once a HiPPO thinks they have the […]
Lead with empathy
Reading Time: < 1 minShari Levitin has a theory that the two main things a leader needs are competency and empathy, and empathy needs to come first. If you lead with empathy to build a relationship, then your competency can come into play to help close the deal. If you’re lacking either one, you’re out. Ultimately, she says that […]
Plans never work perfectly, but they’re essential
Reading Time: < 1 minWe’re coming to that point in the year when many January 1st goals are beginning to fade. In some cases that can be kind of a bad thing (“no more eating healthy!”), but in a lot of cases it’s because your plans have merely shifted, and that’s often a great result. Dwight D. Eisenhower once […]