Let’s face it, one of the reasons you’re doing what you’re doing is because you want to get paid doing something you love instead hiding out in that cube farm all your friends migrate to five days a week.
The process of making and selling your stuff is called marketing...
- you have to make something for people other than your aunt Hilda;
- you want them to buy that stuff from you, in fact you want them to buy a lot of it from you and bring their friends in the process;
- you have to figure out a way for them to know you have that stuff;
- you have to make it easy for them to get it.
The secret laws to making it work
So all of this fits neatly into three immutable laws:
- People have to find you;
- They have to like you so much they want to know more and willing agree to see if your stuff works for them;
- They have to finally plunk their money down and commit to buy your stuff, preferably more than once.
Before I go any further there a few things you need keep in mind always and yes you’ve heard this all before and it is easy to forget so here it is:
- people have problems every minute of the day and the only thing they care about is solving their most urgent problem;
- people only buy when they have a problem to solve no matter how minuscule it is;
- don’t waist your time trying to get everybody in the world to buy your cool stuff not everybody thinks it’s cool, spend your time on those who do;
- The number one reason people don’t buy is trust that whatever they are buying won’t do what it is said to do or won’t solve the problem in front of them right now;
If you are happy where you are then these three laws don’t matter much, but if want your stuff making to be more than a hobby you’ll need to pay attention to those laws.
Immutable Law #1: Be Findable
If people can’t find you and figure out if what you’re making is what they are looking for then the likelihood of having to rent ever increasing storage space for your lovely stuff will definitely increase. The ugly truth is you only have so much room under your bed, in your closets and in your basement and garage.
What do you need to do to be findable?
You have to:
- have something that more than one person wants;
- make it so that those folks can see that you actually have what they want;
- make it so you don’t waste time on trying to sell your stuff to folks who have no interest in it;
It's about road signs
Find-ability is like road signs or points of interest on a map. Without either you’ll have a hard time finding out if that town you’re coming up on has your favorite kind of food or a respectable place to lay your head. In the same way, the more findable you are the better chance you’ll have that people looking for stuff like yours will see you in the crowd.
Now your strategy to be found will completely depend on a few things not the least of which is how much you want to be found. If you’re making stuff for your garage you probably don’t care to much about being found, however, if you want to move into that new studio you’ll have to start strategising. It may surprise you that there is no real magic template you can apply and have an instant game plan.
Your game plan will depend on more than a few things like:
- your business model and goals, including your sale venues;
- your market's wants and whether you have what they want;
- your position in the minds of your market.
Remember...
- people always have problems
- they only buy when when they have a problem, your job is to make it easy for them to see if you might have the solution to their problem today.
Related posts:
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