Detailed Notes
Welcome to Season 21! We're nearing 800 episodes in. Today, we ask whether you should specialize in one skill or master a broad range of skills in your career and business. Join Rob Broadhead and Michael Meloche as they unpack this nuanced debate. They offer insight on applying this to your niche when building your business and identifying target customers. Crafting a Compelling Pitch: Solving Customer Problems
In this episode, Rob and Michael reflect on their experiences building their respective businesses. They discuss the challenges and rewards of finding the right balance between breadth and depth. This is key when crafting a compelling pitch. You want a message that resonates with potential customers. Avoid technical jargon and focus on a clear message about your products or services.
Refining Your Focus: Insights from Industry Experience
Both share their ideas for refining the focus of their consultation companies. Instead of focusing on a broad spectrum of services, they moved to a more targeted approach. In this new approach, they discuss catering to specific industries such as healthcare and e-commerce. Now, you can focus on specific customer pain points and articulate how your solution addresses their needs concisely.
Finding Your Niche: Targeting Specific Markets
Michael shares insights on his experience through Co: Starters, where he learned to make a pivotal shift. When pitching, he moved from emphasizing technical details to emphasizing the value to the customer. He honed in on the client's problems. Presenting clear, understandable solutions and streamlined communication increased his effectiveness in reaching potential clients.
Communicating Value: Simplifying Technical Complexity
Throughout the episode, Rob and Michael stress the importance of identifying your target market. Understand their challenges and tailor your messaging to resonate with them. They also underscore the value of simplicity and clarity in communication, steering away from overwhelming prospects with technical complexities.
In conclusion, Rob and Michael encourage listeners to reflect on their career paths. Consider whether specializing in a niche or mastering a broader skill set aligns with your goals and aspirations. Focus on delivering value to your customers and communicating your solutions effectively. You can do these things to carve out a successful and fulfilling career path.
Feedback and questions are welcome at [email protected], and listeners are invited to connect with Develpreneur on YouTube for more insights and discussions. By focusing on mastering data integration, developers can unlock new possibilities and streamline their workflows.
Additional Resources * From Side Hustle to Success - https://develpreneur.com/from-side-hustle-to-success/ * Navigating the Consulting Roller Coaster - https://develpreneur.com/navigating-the-consulting-roller-coaster/ * Strategies for a Successful Business Launch - https://develpreneur.com/strategies-for-a-successful-business-launch/
Transcript Text
[Music] welcome back we are in our pre-show bonus period which today is going to include a bonus of us figuring out what the heck are we going to talk about today uh both here and of course into the podcast uh we had some had some discussion last week around uh projects and finding them and getting the right size and some things like that and we had some couple of follow-up ideas that came out of it that may be perfect uh this time around and I'm V up a second while I try to go find that because I think it was got it up you got it yeah so the topic I sent you was uh be a master of many things or an expert in one or should you be biased on a language OS framework or technology or embrace the best solution for the job regardless of of preference perfect both of those I like so we're going to dive into those uh let's see we're going to start with the master of of Master and expert because this is actually something we've had to talk about a little bit about what do we want to do how do we how do we brand ourselves how do we put together like our elevator pitch and stuff like that because your elevator P pitch really can't be I do everything for everybody and just get paid money for it you or something like that you've got to be you got to have a catch you got to have something that makes them say hey I want to hear more and so we'll start into that is the you know should you be I guess broad we'll start sort of get into a conversation broad or deep but then how to I think we'll start from a branding side so how do you how do you use that how do you leverage that and so we're gonna jump right into the uh the podcast past I'll just luckily have not got that yet we're gonna jump into the podcast side and we'll go from there hello everybody and welcome back we are cruising through yet another season this is season 20 they're podcasts that don't make it through 21 episodes much less Seasons as we are cranking towards but pretty darn close to 800 episodes getting that you know north of 750 I think now and just cranking our way towards big numbers and that's just the podcast side on the YouTube side of shows there I think we're you a couple hundred into there so there's a lot of content if you haven't gotten enough of us you haven't tried because there's more of us than the world needs probably out there and we do have a wide range of of topics this episode though we're going to focus a little bit on uh really it's like broad versus deep we're going to talk about the idea of should you as your from a career point of view should you be looking to be a master of everything or more like a you know a guru of a specific maybe stack or Silo and before we get into the call too much or before we get into the discussion too much I'll go ahead and introduce I guess myself first I'm Rob head uh one of the founders of develop andur also I have RB Consulting check us out anytime rb- sns.com more importantly though say hello to Michael on the other side hey how you doing today hey Rob yeah this is Michael Mage also co-founder of developer Nur and founder of Invision QA you can check me out at Invision qa. where we help Healthcare small healthcare companies mid to uh small to midsize e-commerce so check us out and that's exactly where we want to start is we've had discussions over the last weeks months and maybe even longer because we both have very broad backgrounds there's a lot of stuff that we can do so if somebody comes to us and says what can you do for me or what do you do it can be a very long drawn out discussion and so that however is not the way to drag in new customers if you're just out of the blue talking to somebody out on the street and you say hey I do all kinds of cool stuff they're going to say thank you very much and move right along you might as well be saying the end of the world is coming tomorrow instead you need to have a you have to have a hook you have to have like a oneliner or something that is enough for them to say oh wow that's intriguing or that is something I need to get so it would be the idea of there's a difference between hey I've got something that you can drink even if you're thirsty you might say h I'm going to keep along going along until I you know go to local store and I'll get a water or soda or whatever but if you say hey I've got this drink I created that is so incredibly tasty that everybody that drinks it gets immediately addicted to it you're like wow I want to hear more about it that's what you want to do with your with your focus and your pitch and while yes we'll talk I think a little bit well we sort of follow up this as the solving problem side of you know broad versus deep I want to talk more from The Branding and marketing side of this one now both of us have have struggled through this a little bit because we started with consultancies and services that are are by themselves almost by their very nature they want to be broad they want to not have you know a lot of specificity to them it's like yeah we can consult and we can tell you about all kinds of different stuff and we can help you with all of that but that's not very useful and so we've walked through through this and I guess I I'll start with uh because you've been in this uh this cohort now for a few weeks and you've really been trying to like you know work on your brand on your pitch on your focus what are the things some of the things that you've gotten out of that or maybe some some lesson learns or even some you know some suggestions you would have to somebody else in a similar situation sure so one of the biggest things I found going into that Coast thing was my previous Venture milash Consulting like your previous Venture we our websites were too broad we basically we serviced anything web based or application based you needed software written you come to us but the problem is everyone can write there's so many people out there that can write software there's really no Niche no it's like why would they come to us we really didn't have that clearly defined in like a oneliner pitch now Mage Consulting is kind of a different story because that actually started organically I actually had a friend reach out and said hey I have this problem and that's where malash Consulting started and then from there I went from one person oh I have this problem and then it it just kind of snowballed into I had all this work for 20 something years then Co hit and well we're all getting old after 20 years it's like okay some businesses folded some people unfortunately passed away and it's time to reset it's like well okay now how do I redo this in today's market because postco is a totally different world people are working from home people are doing more side hustles people are branching out and trying different things they want to get out of corporate America and one of the things you have to think about is who is your customer what are you trying to solve what is your product for and so Mage Consulting kind of went from an internet of things to I now service healthc care small healthcare companies and clinicians and small to midsize uh businesses e-commerce business so I've gone from looking for customers online to I'm now looking for nurses doctors chiropractors uh small mom and pop brick and mortars uh basically I've changed my market so instead of servicing thousands of people that I could potentially have as a customer I now have hundreds or maybe in some cases uh less than 100 if I'm looking in a specific demographic or specific geographical area and I found that I've already found a customer uh potential uh like today I had a call with someone in town they're like oh you're local I was dealing with someone out of Texas and they're down to two customers we're we're afraid they're about to like go away and I'm like well I'm right here and I had a good conversation with them and it just seems that that was so much more uh organic in the conversation I didn't even have to really sell anything just had a common conversation with the customer as to what their technical problem was what I could do to help them and boom I've got a potential customer and hopefully I'll know Monday but that is is a lot of what I got out of from the co-starters what the problem I had going into this was I had changed my idea from being an internet of things to being more a software company that was QA focused that was very tailored to uh test driven development testing services and I realized very quickly well not quickly it was a nwe program I was probably about five weeks in when I realized that I've got the wrong model or the way I'm pitching the model is completely wrong everyone I talk to did not understand what the hell I was talking about they didn't understand what my company did and that was because I was talking Tech I was talking at a lower level than the customer understands so I flipped the model and now I'm talking about services at a product level that I can provide versus The Tech versus what's going on behind the scenes so now I'm talking about delivering quality software and I still provide additional testing and maintenance services for existing software but it's at a level that the customer can understand so now my everything becomes this very narrow pitch and it's very easy now to talk to people and I think that's the key is getting that conversation and that's what I've been working on for now a few months is is trying to get I've got a group that's that's out there and they're trying to like beat the bushes and and get leads and they're doing a pretty a fairly good job of of getting leads early on it was a little bit better and then things have have dried up a little but it's it's really an interesting way to approach business is because now instead of like you I was I have almost always been able to just be sort of I mean I'd s some look for some stuff here and there on sites but generally speaking it was word of mouth and things like that that would bring and it' be you you get into a customer and then the next thing you know they know else and you you can just sort of or you have a handful of customers that they just they like you you work well and you just keep on going and while there's nothing wrong with that that's also not that's not a a pattern for success and growth because eventually they're going to move on or they're going to run out of a budget or they're going to change or you're if you're doing stuff right sooner or later you're going to complete the work you're going to have them across a Finish Line and I've done that with a few where it's like okay well there's really not much more I can do for you I mean I come back every so often we do updates but as far as solid lot of work kind of stuff we've done that we've got you where we want you to be and that's part of what I'm selling is usually it's like hey we want to come in do it fix it walk away and never maybe you never have to see us again but it's that it's getting that hook to say okay this is what I do enough to get them to draw to draw them into that conversation so they can connect and say well you know I need some of that I have an issue like that so it does go back to speaking to their problems and a lot of times I've seen it especially on successful sites where it's basically focused as hey do you have this problem do you have that problem do you have this other problem and if you think about it that's exactly the pattern that is used by those like those late night infomercials or all of those those like high pressure sales things it's like do you need a car right now yes I do well come talk to Crazy Dave because he's got cars that he can get you that's basically what you're looking to do is something where it's like are you in your case are you drowning in software quality issues and finding to do finding a way to say that to them in a way that resonates to them so they say yes I am just getting beat up by having to constantly fix stuff that you have my people fix and I keep paying for things to be fixed and it never gets fixed and it's it's always the same bug over and over and all of those things that come out of QA is being able to distill that down to like a couple of simple questions and then get the conversation to start there and that's really where you know I look at stuff where it's like I love the word that somebody came across I I can't remember which of us came up I think it had gotten somebody told it to me it's the idea of Technology fatigue the idea that we've just got so much stuff business have got you know at least three or four big systems that they're using probably if you think of like they're probably using you know email of some sort like Microsoft Office or something like that they're probably using some sort of financial like QuickBooks or something along those lines they're probably they may be using some you know CRM or Erp so they're either using like maybe a a HubSpot or a netw suite or a Salesforce or blah blah blah and then they're usually also using exess or Excel spreadsheets or just a notep like Evernote or something to just keep all of their stuff going and it's just we're all tired of having to log in 15 times and find ways to like copy data from system a to system b or export and import and all that other crap that is forcing us a lot of times to be more technology technologically or technically proficient than we ever wanted to be we just want to go like sell yarn on the internet and instead we're learning how to write HTML code it's things like that that that's where I said hey let's let's focus on that let's start with you're tired of dealing with your Solutions we can help you figure out where you can improve those things so that you can simplify so you can reduce cost and Licensing so you end up with less cost something that's automated something that's more productive because you're not logging in 15 times and doing all of this double triple quadruple entry and those are the things you want to do say what what is it that you offer that in a nutshell like and it's really getting to what is the end result what are you going to provide them so it's things like if it's if you're in software development whatever the software is that you're building there's a reason they want that and if there's not then you need to revisit that and figure out either why are you doing it or what really is the reason and it could be very very specific so you could be somebody writing software that helps um people that are buying electronic parts find the best price something very Niche it's going to be some little e-commerce shop or something like that that's going to want it but the reason that you're you know the value you're going to give them they're going to be able to F for a better price and have more selection for their customers awesome you got a sentence you've got a hook now you've also got a niche you know who you're going to talk to if if you were listening Michael mentioned like nurses and doctors and chiropractors and dentists and specific PE it's not talking to people it's talking to more specific people so you want to be able to put labels and it it does go down to the classic Avatar of knowing who your ideal customer is how old are they what's what is their gender what is their background what do they do what do they eat for breakfast what they eat for dinner what what do they want out of life what are their goals what are their hopes or dreams all that the better you know that that is your ideal that you know that they would spend all their money on your product or something like that and then you can expand out of there so you can go to stuff and say well that person is a doctor that's got their own clinic and so you know what every I'm looking at and seeing that yes any doctor that has their own Clinic would have at least a good shot of wanting this product and that's how you get yourself into a niche that's going to fit and it's also one you can address because if you want to go reach out to people you have to know something about the people you can't just dial for dollars and just start going from a toz in a phone book if you don't know what a phone book is we'll have another episode on that but especially like the internet and things like that you've got to have key words you don't just go to Google and just say give me my results you've got to give it specific words and context and something to work with chat GPT all that stuff there has to be context there has to be specifics and we have to do that when we're building our business as well I'll pass that over to you while I take a deep breath yeah now that you made me laugh out of my chair phone books God I don't remember last time I had one of this the other thing that I briefly touched on and Rob kind of alluded to this as he talked through this is talk to the solution that you are providing to your customer avoid the technical talk just explain how your product or your solution will solve their problem they don't care about the rest of it they just want to know how is it that you are going to fix their problem and once I understood that it it was like oh okay this is easier to talk to your customer if you get into the weeds into the technical you lose them they move on they're like I have no idea what they're talking about they're not for me but it's one of those things right um it's like when you're dealing with your sales guys I guess you had to work with them to get your pitch or your target to a specific uh Market that they could go out to especially like when we're doing Google ads you have to narrow down like keywords demographics uh like for me doctors nurses Etc I if you don't pair it down it's going to cost you Dialing for Dollars or hundreds of dollars through Google ads just to even remotely hit one customer of thousands or Millions so you got to be very careful in how you articulate your customer I think that's a good place to sort of like that's a a nice bottom line for this for this episode when you're trying to figure out what is my scope of my business or my service of my products who is my customer be thinking about because I think that's where your most value is think about the solution what is the value you're offering your customer what is the what is literally the problem that you are solving for them or the problems that you are solving for them but it can't be a long list if it's a bunch of problems find a way to pair that down to like one or two summary problems things like and and you can keep it sort of General at start at the start so you can say it's things like uh improving revenue or increasing customer service or improving quality or reducing errors or returns there's you know those kinds of we call the marketing kinds of words of we do it bigger better faster smarter whiter teeth all that good stuff find those things that you can apply to that list of solutions that you're giving turn that into a nice little hey this is what I provide you in a nutshell and then don't act like that because it's not you're not going to act like that's the that is the be all and end all that is the start of the conversation and if you're going to go broad you can go broad as you get into that conversation a perfect example that I'll I'll wrap it up with that I had the other day is I was talking to somebody for a very specific type of work and they said hey we were looking at your background and we saw that you can do this this and this and I said yes I can but that is not where that's not the best place for me to be you're not going to get your best bang for your buck out of that I've got other people that do a lot of that kind of work and that's a different Arrangement and he's like cool that's great was just checking just wanting to see what you could do those are the kinds of things where you got to sometimes try to be a little you know you've got to solve the right problem instead of trying to solve every problem because it's just if you try to solve every problem it's too it's too easy for them to say wait I don't want to do it all I want to do just one just this one thing and so if you could do just this one thing like check us out leave a comment leave a you know leave a review all that kind of good stuff if you have questions comments additions subtractions editorial things whatever you want us to cover shoot us an email at info@ developin or.com you can check us out subscribe on our to wherever you subscribe to podcast we're out there you can check us out on the developer or Channel on YouTube you can check us out at develop or.com lots of stuff out there and we've got links to both the uh the audio the video and so many others we got PowerPoints we got you name it we're out there lots of good comment that being said we'll let you get back to your day and we're going to get back to ours so go out there and have yourself a great day a great week and we will talk to you next time [Music]
Transcript Segments
[Music]
welcome back we are in our pre-show
bonus period which today is going to
include a bonus of us figuring out what
the heck are we going to talk about
today uh both here and of course into
the podcast uh we had some had some
discussion last week around uh projects
and finding them and getting the right
size and some things like that and we
had some couple of follow-up ideas that
came out of it that may be perfect uh
this time around and I'm V up a second
while I try to go find that because I
think it was got it up you got it yeah
so the topic I sent you was uh be a
master of many things or an expert in
one or should you be biased on a
language OS framework or technology or
embrace the best solution for the job
regardless of of preference perfect both
of those I like so we're going to dive
into those uh let's see we're going to
start with the master of of Master and
expert because this is actually
something we've had to talk about a
little bit about what do we want to do
how do we how do we brand ourselves how
do we put together like our elevator
pitch and stuff like that because your
elevator P pitch really can't be I do
everything for everybody and just get
paid money for it you or something like
that you've got to be you got to have a
catch you got to have something that
makes them say hey I want to hear more
and so we'll start into that is the you
know should you be I guess broad we'll
start sort of get into a conversation
broad or deep but then how to I think
we'll start from a branding side so how
do you how do you use that how do you
leverage that and
so we're gonna jump right into the uh
the podcast
past I'll just luckily have not got that
yet we're gonna jump into the podcast
side and we'll go from there hello
everybody and welcome back we are
cruising through yet another season this
is season 20 they're podcasts that don't
make it through 21 episodes much less
Seasons as we are cranking towards but
pretty darn close to 800 episodes
getting that you know north of 750 I
think now and just cranking our way
towards big numbers and that's just the
podcast side on the YouTube side of
shows there I think we're you a couple
hundred into there so there's a lot of
content if you haven't gotten enough of
us you haven't tried because there's
more of us than the world needs probably
out there and we do have a wide range of
of topics this episode though we're
going to focus a little bit on uh really
it's like broad versus deep we're going
to talk about the idea of should you as
your from a career point of view should
you be looking to be a master of
everything or more like a you know a
guru of a specific maybe stack or Silo
and before we get into the call too much
or before we get into the discussion too
much I'll go ahead and introduce I guess
myself first I'm Rob head uh one of the
founders of develop andur also I have RB
Consulting check us out anytime rb-
sns.com more importantly though say
hello to Michael on the other side hey
how you doing today hey Rob yeah this is
Michael Mage also co-founder of
developer Nur and founder of Invision QA
you can check me out at Invision qa.
where we help Healthcare small
healthcare companies mid to uh small to
midsize e-commerce so check us out
and that's exactly where we want to
start is we've had discussions over the
last weeks months and maybe even longer
because we both have very broad
backgrounds there's a lot of stuff that
we can do so if somebody comes to us and
says what can you do for me or what do
you do it can be a very long drawn out
discussion and so that however is not
the way to drag in new customers if
you're just out of the blue talking to
somebody out on the street and you say
hey I do all kinds of cool stuff they're
going to say thank you very much and
move right along you might as well be
saying the end of the world is coming
tomorrow instead you need to have a you
have to have a hook you have to have
like a oneliner or something that is
enough for them to say oh wow that's
intriguing or that is something I need
to get so it would be the idea of
there's a difference
between hey I've got something that you
can drink even if you're thirsty you
might say h I'm going to keep along
going along until I you know go to local
store and I'll get a water or soda or
whatever but if you say hey I've got
this drink I created that is so
incredibly tasty that everybody that
drinks it gets immediately addicted to
it you're like wow I want to hear more
about it that's what you want to do with
your with your focus and your pitch and
while yes we'll talk I think a little
bit well we sort of follow up this as
the solving problem side of you know
broad versus deep
I want to talk more from The Branding
and marketing side of this one now both
of us have have struggled through this a
little bit because we started with
consultancies and services that
are are by themselves almost by their
very nature they want to be broad they
want to not have you know a lot of
specificity to them it's like yeah we
can consult and we can tell you about
all kinds of different stuff and we can
help you with all of that but that's not
very useful and so we've walked through
through this and I guess I I'll start
with uh because you've been in this uh
this cohort now for a few weeks and
you've really been trying to like you
know work on your brand on your pitch on
your focus what are the things some of
the things that you've gotten out of
that or maybe some some lesson learns or
even some you know some suggestions you
would have to somebody else in a similar
situation sure so one of the biggest
things I found going into that Coast
thing was my previous Venture milash
Consulting like your previous Venture we
our websites were too broad we basically
we serviced anything web based or
application based you needed software
written you come to us but the problem
is everyone can write there's so many
people out there that can write software
there's really no Niche no it's like why
would they come to us we really didn't
have that clearly defined in like a
oneliner
pitch
now Mage Consulting is kind of a
different story because that actually
started organically I actually had a
friend reach out and said hey I have
this problem and that's where malash
Consulting started and then from there I
went from one person oh I have this
problem and then it it just kind
of snowballed into I had all this work
for 20 something years then Co hit and
well
we're all getting old after 20 years
it's like okay some businesses folded
some people unfortunately passed away
and it's time to reset it's like well
okay now how do I redo this in today's
market because postco is a totally
different world people are working from
home people are doing more side hustles
people are branching out and trying
different things they want to get out of
corporate America and one of the things
you have to think about is who is your
customer what are you trying to solve
what is your product for and so Mage
Consulting kind of went from an internet
of things to I now service healthc care
small healthcare companies and
clinicians and small to midsize uh
businesses e-commerce business so I've
gone from looking for customers online
to I'm now looking for nurses doctors
chiropractors uh small mom and pop brick
and mortars uh basically I've changed my
market so instead of servicing thousands
of people that I could potentially have
as a customer I now have hundreds or
maybe in some cases uh less than 100 if
I'm looking in a specific demographic or
specific geographical area and I found
that I've already found a customer uh
potential uh like today I had a call
with someone in town they're like oh
you're local I was dealing with someone
out of Texas and they're down to two
customers we're we're afraid they're
about to like go away and I'm like well
I'm right here and I had a good
conversation with them and it just seems
that that was so much more uh organic in
the conversation I didn't even have to
really sell anything just had a common
conversation with the customer as to
what their technical problem was what I
could do to help them and boom I've got
a potential customer and hopefully I'll
know Monday but that is is a lot of what
I got out of from the co-starters what
the problem I had going into this was I
had changed my idea from being an
internet of things to being more a
software company that was QA focused
that was very tailored to uh test driven
development testing services and I
realized very quickly well not quickly
it was a nwe program I was probably
about five weeks in when I realized that
I've got the wrong model or the way I'm
pitching the model is completely
wrong everyone I talk to did not
understand what the hell I was talking
about they didn't understand what my
company did and that was because I was
talking Tech I was talking at a lower
level than the customer understands so I
flipped the model and now I'm talking
about services at a product level that I
can provide versus The Tech versus
what's going on behind the scenes so now
I'm talking about delivering quality
software and I still provide additional
testing and maintenance services for
existing software but it's at a level
that the customer can understand so now
my everything becomes this very narrow
pitch and it's very easy now to talk to
people and I think that's the key is
getting that conversation and that's
what I've been working on for now a few
months is
is trying to get I've got a group that's
that's out there and they're trying to
like beat the bushes and and get leads
and they're doing a pretty a fairly good
job of of getting leads early on it was
a little bit better and then things have
have dried up a little but it's it's
really an interesting way to approach
business is because now instead of like
you I was I have almost always been able
to just be sort of I mean I'd s some
look for some stuff here and there on
sites but generally speaking it was word
of mouth and things like that that would
bring and it' be you you get into a
customer and then the next thing you
know they know else and you you can just
sort of or you have a handful of
customers that they just they like you
you work well and you just keep on going
and while there's nothing wrong with
that that's also not that's not a a
pattern for success and growth because
eventually they're going to move on or
they're going to run out of a budget or
they're going to change or you're if
you're doing stuff right sooner or later
you're going to complete the work you're
going to have them across a Finish Line
and I've done that with a few where it's
like okay well there's really not much
more I can do for you I mean I come back
every so often we do updates but as far
as solid lot of work kind of stuff we've
done that we've got you where we want
you to be and that's part of what I'm
selling is usually it's like hey we want
to come in do it fix it walk away and
never maybe you never have to see us
again but it's that it's getting that
hook to say
okay this is what I do
enough to get them to draw to draw them
into that conversation so they can
connect and say well you know I need
some of that I have an issue like that
so it does go back to speaking to their
problems and a lot of times I've seen it
especially on successful sites where
it's basically focused as hey do you
have this problem do you have that
problem do you have this other problem
and if you think about it that's exactly
the pattern that is used by those like
those late night infomercials or all of
those those like high pressure sales
things it's like do you need a car right
now yes I do well come talk to Crazy
Dave because he's got cars that he can
get you that's basically what you're
looking to do is something where it's
like are you in your case are you
drowning in software quality issues and
finding to do finding a way to say that
to them in a way that resonates to them
so they say yes I am just getting beat
up by having to constantly fix stuff
that you have my people fix and I keep
paying for things to be fixed and it
never gets fixed and it's it's always
the same bug over and over and all of
those things that come out of QA is
being able to distill that down to like
a couple of simple questions and then
get the conversation to start there and
that's really where you know I look at
stuff where it's like I love the word
that somebody came across I I can't
remember which of us came up I think it
had gotten somebody told it to me it's
the idea of Technology fatigue the idea
that we've just got so much stuff
business have got you know at least
three or four big systems that they're
using probably if you think of like
they're probably using you know email of
some sort like Microsoft Office or
something like that they're probably
using some sort of financial like
QuickBooks or something along those
lines they're probably they may be using
some you know CRM or Erp so they're
either using like maybe a a HubSpot or a
netw suite or a Salesforce or blah blah
blah and then they're usually also using
exess or Excel spreadsheets or just a
notep like Evernote or something to just
keep all of their stuff
going and it's just we're all tired of
having to log in 15 times and find ways
to like copy data from system a to
system b or export and import and all
that other crap that is forcing us a lot
of times to be more technology
technologically or
technically proficient than we ever
wanted to be we just want to go like
sell yarn on the internet and instead
we're learning how to write HTML code
it's things like that that that's where
I said hey let's let's focus on that
let's start with you're tired of dealing
with your Solutions we can help you
figure out where you can improve those
things so that you can simplify so you
can reduce cost and Licensing so you end
up with less cost something that's
automated something that's more
productive because you're not logging in
15 times and doing all of this double
triple quadruple entry and those are the
things you want to do say what what is
it that you offer that in a nutshell
like and it's really getting to what is
the end result what are you going to
provide them so it's things like if it's
if you're in software development
whatever the software is that you're
building there's a reason they want that
and if there's not then you need to
revisit that and figure out either why
are you doing it
or what really is the reason and it
could be very very specific so you could
be somebody writing software that helps
um people that are buying electronic
parts find the best price something very
Niche it's going to be some little
e-commerce shop or something like that
that's going to want it but the reason
that you're you know the value you're
going to give them they're going to be
able to F for a better price and have
more selection for their customers
awesome you got a sentence you've got a
hook now you've also got a niche you
know who you're going to talk to if if
you were listening Michael mentioned
like nurses and doctors and
chiropractors and dentists and specific
PE it's not talking to people it's
talking to more specific people so you
want to be able to put labels and it it
does go down to the classic Avatar of
knowing who your ideal customer is how
old are they what's what is their gender
what is their background what do they do
what do they eat for breakfast what they
eat for dinner what what do they want
out of life what are their goals what
are their hopes or dreams all that the
better you know
that that is your ideal that you know
that they would spend all their money on
your product or something like that and
then you can expand out of there so you
can go to stuff and say well that person
is a doctor that's got their own clinic
and so you know what every I'm looking
at and seeing that yes any doctor that
has their own Clinic would have at least
a good shot of wanting this product and
that's how you get yourself into a niche
that's going to fit and it's also one
you can address because if you want to
go reach out to people you have to know
something about the people you can't
just dial for dollars and just start
going from a toz in a phone book if you
don't know what a phone book is we'll
have another episode on that but
especially like the internet and things
like that you've got to have key words
you don't just go to Google and just say
give me my results you've got to give it
specific words and context and something
to work with chat GPT all that stuff
there has to be context there has to be
specifics and we have to do that when
we're building our business as
well I'll pass that over to you while I
take a deep breath yeah now that you
made me laugh out of my
chair phone books God I don't remember
last time I had one of this the other
thing that I briefly touched on and Rob
kind of alluded to this as he talked
through this
is talk to the solution that you are
providing to your customer avoid the
technical talk just explain how your
product or your solution will solve
their problem they don't care about the
rest of it they just want to know how is
it that you are going to fix their
problem and once I understood that it it
was like oh okay this is easier to talk
to your customer if you get into the
weeds into the technical you lose them
they move on they're like I have no idea
what they're talking about they're not
for
me but
it's one of those things right um it's
like when you're dealing with your sales
guys I guess you had to work with them
to get your pitch or your target to a
specific uh Market that they could go
out to especially like when we're doing
Google ads you have to narrow down like
keywords
demographics uh like for me doctors
nurses Etc I if you don't pair it down
it's going to cost you Dialing for
Dollars
or hundreds of dollars through Google
ads just to even remotely hit
one customer of thousands or Millions so
you got to be very careful in how you
articulate your
customer I think that's a good place to
sort of like that's a a nice bottom line
for this for this episode when you're
trying to figure
out what is my scope of my business or
my service of my products who is my
customer
be thinking about because I think that's
where your most value is think about the
solution what is the value you're
offering your customer what is the what
is literally the problem that you are
solving for them or the problems that
you are solving for them but it can't be
a long list if it's a bunch of problems
find a way to pair that down to like one
or two summary problems things like and
and you can keep it sort of General at
start at the start so you can say it's
things like uh improving revenue or
increasing customer service or improving
quality or reducing errors or returns
there's you know those kinds of we call
the marketing kinds of words of we do it
bigger better faster smarter whiter
teeth all that good stuff find those
things that you can apply to that list
of solutions that you're giving turn
that into a nice little hey this is what
I provide you in a nutshell and then
don't act like that because it's not
you're not going to act like that's the
that is the be all and end all that is
the start of the conversation and if
you're going to go broad you can go
broad as you get into that conversation
a perfect example that I'll I'll wrap it
up with that I had the other day is I
was talking to somebody for a very
specific type of work and they said hey
we were looking at your background and
we saw that you can do this this and
this and I said yes I can but that is
not where that's not the best place for
me to be you're not going to get your
best bang for your buck out of that I've
got other people that do a lot of that
kind of work and that's a different
Arrangement and he's like cool that's
great was just checking just wanting to
see what you could do those are the
kinds of things where you got to
sometimes try to be a little you know
you've got to solve the right problem
instead of trying to solve every problem
because it's just if you try to solve
every problem it's too it's too easy for
them to say wait I don't want to do it
all I want to do just one just this one
thing and so if you could do just this
one thing like check us out leave a
comment leave a you know leave a review
all that kind of good stuff if you have
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we got PowerPoints we got you name it
we're out there lots of good comment
that being said we'll let you get back
to your day and we're going to get back
to ours so go out there and have
yourself a great day a great week and we
will talk to you next time
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