The need to define your product before you seek finance or business systems
If you cannot explain your business in one minute to a high school student or a local shop owner, you do not have a product yet. You might have a big idea, you might already be looking for bank loans or hiring staff, but you are moving too fast.
Friction happens when you focus on the mechanics of running a company before you have defined the core reason your business exists.
The high cost of failing to explain your business idea clearly.
I recently spoke with a businessman who had spent years in the petroleum industry. He had deep knowledge of safety, but he could not articulate what he was selling or who would pay for it.
He was at a conference, he started talking about finance and development costs while missing the basic ABCs of his own idea. He was stuck in a middle management mindset where the solution to a problem is to hire a team to find the answer.
In the world of business ownership, you must know the answer yourself before the team arrives. Without a clear description, your customer is left looking at a tangled mess of ideas.
Learn how I approach these situations.
■ Strategy
You cannot have a business strategy or look for financing if you cannot define the product and the person who is going to buy it.
Read how master strategist Alex Osterwalder defines the necessity of a clear value proposition.
Explain your business using the one sentence.
Branding logic is about forcing you to stop using corporate words and start defining exactly what your product is. Think of your business as a massive rocky headland.
This land is your asset. It is solid and permanent. Marketing is like a kite you fly from that land. If you do not have the land, your marketing is just a downed kite tangled in the surf.
Nobody buys a product they cannot understand. You must stand at the edge of the cliff and look at the sharp line between clarity and confusion. If you cannot describe what you do in one sentence, you are tangled in the water.
Watch me walk through this visual metaphor in more detail in my video breakdown.
Effective sales happen when you describe your business as a tangible asset.
Clearly defining your product prevents you from wasting money on high interest loans for a concept that is not ready. It turns a vague idea into something banks and customers can value.
When the message is simple and correct, the customer understands exactly what you are selling. This understanding is what allows your marketing to perform. Like a kite catching a steady breeze, your business gains momentum because it is anchored to a truth that people can actually grasp.
You stop fighting the market and start leading it.
Other businesses I have seen this in and been able to help.
The micro step to explain your business today. Sit down and write two sentences.
- The first sentence must describe your product.
- The second sentence must describe your ideal customer.
If you already have these descriptions, look at them again. Strip away every piece of industry jargon that a person outside your field would not understand. If your description is filled with “corporate-speak” or technical labels, your customer will be too confused to commit. You must find the bedrock of your business before you try to fly the marketing kite.
You can see what is missing in your own strategy by developing insight of your brand: DEVELOP YOUR INSIGHT.
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If you want to make a start, the Brand Strategy Code Session is where we set or update the strategy that governs goals, decisions, and spend.