MYM — Part 10: Choose Your Stage

7 min readJul 5, 2018

Designing products people WANT to buy

Sales — they’re the lifeblood of your business, right? Proof that you’re onto something. Evidence that there is a market for something you’ve fallen in love with. Confirmation that your business is solving real-life problems in real life.

If only it was easier to put yourself out there in a way that gave you all the confidence your products and services would fly off the digital shelves.

Good news! Remember that CTFO process we’ve been digging into, the process that inspires you to create a brand that helps you show up effortlessly, professionally, and personally. Well, that same process also helps you create offers that sell.

Your Business crush has it sussed
— now you can too

Think about that business you love so much for a moment…

You know, the one you’ll happily listen to for days on end and whose products and services are always straight on your card the moment they launch. In fact, you’ve been known to buy said products and services without so much of a whisper of a sales page — because you know anything they create is going to be just what you need.

How do they do it? And wouldn’t you love a bit of that for yourself?! Well, you can!

There is a way to make your offers irresistible — to the right people of course. And it all happens in the sweet spot where your CORE, TRIBE, AND FEELINGS collide.

Yup, the final part of the CTFO jigsaw is OFFERINGS and the reason this element comes last is because you can’t create something to sell until you’ve figured out:

Your CORE message — the one that’s built around who you are and what you love
The TRIBE you wish to attract — the people who are dying to work with YOU
The FEELINGS you wish to inspire in the people you want to work with — to get the right people engaged, excited, and curious to be in your world.

But why this way around?

It’s simple really. You can’t create effective offers without knowing what your brand stands for and who you want to attract — otherwise you’re just putting stuff out there that waters down your brand and confuses everyone who’s been following you.

Here’s a quick example…

If you want to create a high-quality brand designed to attract high-end clients, then a bargain basement discount or budget product offering just won’t fit.

Sure, you may sell some stuff today, but you’ll attract the wrong people, undersell your work, and build a brand with conflicting messages. What’s more, you’ll make it hard to position yourself as that high-quality brand when you start trying to promote your higher priced offerings.

Similarly, if you’ve created a brand to target start-ups, fresh to the business world newbies then releasing an advanced level product or service will quickly undermine all the positioning work you’ve done to date. IT JUST WON’T MAKE SENSE.

That business you admire so much knows it. They get how their brand and their offerings work together. They know that what they’re selling depends on who they want to sell to — with the emphasis being on THEY.

Remember, this is all about YOU — who you want to work with and the services YOU want to offer.

The businesses you admire know exactly who they are and they know who they want to attract. They know exactly what feeling they want to inspire in you when they release something new. They know what you need. They know what you desire. Hey, they’re so deep in your head that they can almost read your mind!

And that’s why, when it comes to launch time, they have a pile of people who are ready to buy — without the need to read an in-depth sales pitch.

Because their audience trusts them to deliver, selling just got a whole heap easier. And you can do that too.

Sell what you WANT to deliver

This concept goes beyond price points, it includes the type of service or product you sell. If you hate creating content, then you’re going to struggle to put together an online course. And if you love one-to-one delivery more than anything, don’t feel you have to push that to one side to focus on the one-to-many options that the experts say anyone with any sense should create!

Remember, this is YOUR business and it’s here to serve you first.

So don’t put yourself under needless pressure and fall out of love with your work because you’re trying to create what the current internet trend says you should.

Create the things that you love, you’ll do a better job when you do and as long as you understand your CTFO, it will all come together beautifully.

DO IT YOUR WAY

That might mean going solo. But equally, your next launch may be a collaborative project that you pull together with someone you love.

The way you launch your offer is just as important as the offer itself! Get your brand right and you’re going to attract people who want to work with you because of YOU. And that means when you launch something new, you have to deliver the launch in a way that feels right for you.

In practice, this means choosing the platforms and media that empower you to be your best — and allow your tribe to see you at your best.

So don’t be afraid to break the rules, instead
BECOME THE RULE MAKER

I’ve said it before, but just because a strategy worked for one person, doesn’t mean it will work for you. So be wary of all the advice out there. It may apply to you, but equally, it may not.

Going back quite a few years now I invested in a mastermind that I was super excited about joining. The only trouble was I couldn’t use the advice I was given. I was told that unless I could sell from the stage, I’d never make it.

But I knew that wasn’t true. I know myself and I know how I work best. I know what I love doing and how I show up best. And taking centre stage — literally, standing in the spotlight on a stage — wasn’t something I had any desire for back then, and still isn’t now. It’s just not really me. Now I know lots of people do extremely well this way. As a sales strategy, it definitely works. It’s a powerful way to get your OFFERINGS in front of the right people.

But it isn’t the only way. There are so many ways you can get your offers out there and YOU get to choose.

I do a much better job showing up on video — I still reach the right people and because this is the place where my voice and personality shine through, I do a much better job.

So guess what! I make videos!

I also enjoy sharing through written content, and of course branded graphics — I love using visuals to communicate an idea that inspires an action. That right there is my reliable, comfy slippers that I can always depend on.

So when it comes to getting your OFFER out there, don’t just follow the internet trends!

Instead, be YOU.

There are stacks of ways that you can communicate effectively and impact your audience now. From paid advertising to story-based videos, to long-form sales copy — and selling from the stage!

Thanks to the internet, you can reach your audience wherever they are. You can hone in specifically on your perfect customer. You can do a mix and match of approaches based on what suits your budget, your style, YOU, and your audience.

So instead of doing whatever’s trendy at the moment, do it your way.

It will be most effective — and you’ll also avoid being one of the copycats. We’ve all seen them, right — when everyone is doing sideways sales letters or relying on tripwire driven funnels. Again, it may work for you — or it may not.

So instead of trying to shoehorn yourself into that tried and tested template, choose the platform based on who you are, who your customers are, and the experience you want your TRIBE to have.

Launch ‘unconventionally’. Launch YOUR way. Make your own rules. It’s the most powerful way of all to Make Your Mark when you launch an OFFERING that you can’t wait to share with the world.

Action:
CHOOSE YOUR STAGE

Think about how you show up best? What platforms, media, events, styles, do you feel most comfortable in. Start here.

Grab a sheet of paper and start making some lists. Divide your page into 3 columns.

In the first column write a list of all the places you love showing up, the places you enjoy sharing your message and making offers.

In the third column write a list of all the places you ‘could’ be making offers but you’re not, for any reason.

In the middle column write down all the places you know your perfect customer loves to hang out, where they are in work mode, where they are likely to be in that mindset of buying already — which is very different to hanging out just for fun when it comes to choosing places to position your offerings.

Now armed with these lists, look at the crossovers. You’re looking for the top matches, the places you love and your perfect customers love — this is your sweet spot for sales.

Originally published on the blog at: https://bydeesign.co.uk/blog/mym-part-10-choose-your-stage/