No one needs your service

Lots of businesses position their product or service as something people need. This is wrong.

No one really needs anything you’re going to sell. We need air and that’s not sold to us. Technically, you could go and get free water and grow your own food.

Take it up a level from that, and ‘necessities’ like cups and plates are very helpful, but you could live without them. You could drink or eat from any container you already own, or even use your hands.

What you’re buying is normally the chance to make your life easier. It’s much easier for me to buy a potato from the shop than it is for me to grow it. It’s much easier for me to buy your mug to drink from rather than use a container I already own. It’s much easier for me to pay you to do a service than to try and do it myself.

I don’t need to buy your mug, but of course it will make my life easier.

Once you understand and register the harsh reality that no one needs what you do, I promise that makes it so much easier to sell. Because you cannot sell something based on only a need.

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The second mistake is when businesses try to sell the features of the product.

This is a mug that you can drink tea from. So I will advertise it to all people who like to drink tea.

You want options for how to drink your tea? This is a dainty teacup with pretty handpainted flowers. Or this is a big mug that you can wrap your whole hand around. Pick the mug that’s right for you.

But how do I know, as the customer, if I am a dainty teacup person or a big mug person?

This mug holds 300ml of liquid and can be shipped to you next day and is dishwasher safe. Ok? Are those features helping the customer see that that’s the right mug for them at all? No.

How does your customer know which is the right mug for them if these all have the same features?

This applies to you just listing what’s included in your service too. Or even just listing the end transformation. You’re selling a course about how to become a freelancer, and you’ve listed out (probably in bullet points) each module of the course and what they will learn. You’ve ‘sold’ them the transformation that this course will help them learn how to become a successful freelancer. You ‘need’ this course if you want to become that successful freelancer.

But why does your target customer even want to become a successful freelancer? What does being a successful freelancer mean for their life? What’s the transformation beyond just the thing you’re selling?

What would the customers life look like with that mug?

The third way to sell is the only way to sell. Painting a picture of the product in the customers lives.

You’re selling dainty teacups with handpainted flowers? Let’s design your branding and website to be cottage-core styled, with handdrawn illustrations, soft edges, and a nature inspired colour palette. The photography should show the teacups being used for fruit tea, herbal teas, a small cup of milky tea with one sugar carefully added and stirred in. Lifestyle shoots of an afternoon tea set up with equally dainty, carefully cut sandwiches nearby.

Dainty teacup aesthetic

Instantly, someone who aspires to have this type of life, associates tea drinking with that style, is a fan of a small cup of fruit tea, can see themselves represented in your design and will know that this is the mug for them. They want that lifestyle, that vision you are selling, and this mug is a step to get them closer to that. It’s not necessarily about the mug. It’s about the type of person they want to be and positioning your product or service as a piece of that Pinterest board lifestyle they’ve got in mind.

That set up will also deter people who are not your target customer. And that is a good thing. You do not want to appeal to every tea drinker, as the mug features alone are not giving them a clear reason to buy from you. So trying to appeal to everyone will simply make you have a very low conversion rate.

Another brand will be selling a mug (because no-ones services or products are truly unique). But they might be selling big mugs that fit a massive 500ml of liquid in them, with chunky handles and bold colours. They might show these off with branding and a website that reflects warmth. Big images of strong mugs holding a large americano, or a big milky tea sat next to a plate of buttery toast. Photography showing these mugs on a bedside table next to an unmade bed, on a wooden coffee table surrounded by thick cosy blankets. A person wrapping both hands around the mug whilst taking a big sip in bed on a Sunday. Or a person trying to gulp down a needed big morning coffee in the same cup before hitting the road to the office, powering up their morning.

Big comfort mug aesthetic

Someone else will be able to place themselves into this vision. Where mugs for them is about comfort, routine, getting that needed caffeine injection on a slow weekend or a busy weekday morning. They too want to be wrapped in blankets on a Sunday with a plate of perfectly toasted, well buttered bread and a big cup of coffee. They too need a big hit of caffeine they can gulp down before starting the morning school run rush. This vision tells them that they’re a big cup person and this is the mug that will fit into their life.

Now both these mug brands are selling the same product, with the same features of holding liquid, being dishwasher safe, and available to be shipped to you the next day. But both brands are painting an entirely different picture about how that product can be used, and how it would look in their customers lives. Both brands are only appealing to their very specific target customer.

And neither brand is trying to pretend that their mug is something every tea drinker needs.

Not sure on your business positioning? Work with me on a Business Blueprint sprint and let’s work out what type of mug you’re selling.

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