Your 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 Android. A Tesla doesn’t have the same range as gas-powered cars. Gmail is missing some features that other alternatives provide.
Seth Godin put it this way:
If the perfect option existed, they’d buy it. Since there’s no such thing as the perfect offering, people are happy to settle for the Next Best Alternative.
If you need a new phone, you probably have an idea of what the perfect phone would be. It doesn’t exist, and so your “next best alternative” is likely going to be something like the iPhone 13 or the Pixel 6. They’re both imperfect, but one of them might be what you consider to be the best choice available.
Your product or service offering is the same. It’s not perfect, and people shouldn’t expect it to be. In fact, if you aren’t ashamed of those shortcomings, it can help your customer better appreciate what you have to offer. It’s not unlike saying “no” to help give your “yes” more power.
A good example with GreenMellen are our LaunchPad websites. They’re fantastic and have proven to be very popular, but they’re not perfect. We even say on our website exactly why they might not be a good fit in every situation. If those reasons apply to a potential client of ours, then we all know it’s not the best way to go. However, if those reasons don’t apply in their case, then it makes the LaunchPad even that much more appealing.
A perfect product is essentially impossible. As long as yours can be the next best alternative, you’ll be in good shape.
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