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Think Like Your Customer Act like You Own a Business

What motivates someone to give another person money in exchange for a product or service? What do you think you need to create–the processes, the product, the marketing–that creates a win-win situation for you and your clients and customers?

These are all important questions and questions that often times most business owners neglect to give good energy and attention to.

If I want to provide a product or service to you, where my end-goal is for you to give me money. I think it makes sense that I would need to understand how you– the customer–think.

Would you agree?

You see, my goal as a business owner is that I want to sell you something. In fact, I want to sell a lot of something to a lot of people, including you.

It is what it is.

We live in America–The land of the free and the home of the brave.

But sales are numbers, so the more the better, right?

This in turn creates wealth for me and my family, and allows me to reach many more of my goals outside of time–freedom and financial independence.

But how you might ask?

Well it’s simple, but not so simple.

As a business owner I need to think like my ideal client or customer. I need to put myself in their shoes as someone that is looking for something specific where they are willing to pay me for what I have to offer.

Some of the wealthiest individuals in America are either involved in real estate, the stock market, or they own their own businesses.

So let’s start with the idea of being a business owner.

Warren BuffetForbes ranked #3 wealthiest man in the world–has been quoted as saying that the wealthiest individuals in America own businesses that are essentially “compounding machines” where revenue is generated on a recurring basis.

This is also defined as passive income.

However, when you examine it more closely, wealth is created when you serve people’s needs. Any major business or corporation is in the business of giving value and serving people at the highest level. In return people reward these companies by purchasing their products or services.

If you work a job like most Americans you would first need to understand that the psychology of understanding wealth creation from this perspective begins with understanding that most people are of a “consumer” mindset as opposed to a “producer” mindset.

A consumer mindset is based off of specific psychological triggers and programming that encourages people to buy more of things they typically don’t need.

We are a consumerist society in America, and it’s the reason why so many people want to come here. It’s a land of opportunity for people to create real wealth from serving that side–the consumerism side–of the spectrum.

My business is in the online space–speaking, writing, blogging, and the sell of digital products. As an entrepreneur I decided that if I wanted to be time-free and financially independent, I would need to find a way to serve people at the highest level.

So I turned to the Internet because I knew that my ability to communicate and teach could be translated into income in the online space.

But before I could do any of that I needed to think about who my ideal client or customer was.

So you need to ask yourself a few questions:

Who am I serving?

What do I know that will benefit them?

How do I package my knowledge, my talents, and my gifts and monetize it?

What are my ideal clients frustrations and pain points?

In the online space we refer to our products as digital products, and the formulation of a digital product normally begins with these kinds of questions in mind.

So, what are digital products?

Digital products can be any of these: ebooks, online courses, and downloadable PDF’s

So when you think about selling products online the question becomes do you truly understand the psychology behind selling? While most people will argue that they don’t need to understand sales to be successful, I beg to differ.

Starting a business can be a very daunting and overwhelming undertaking, but to do so without giving any thought to the people that you want to reach down in their pocket and give you money is a disservice.

Forbes has projected that the online education industry would grow to a staggering $107 Billion in 2015.

This means that with the proliferation of information via the internet–eBooks, online courses, downloadable digital products–creates the opportunities for entrepreneurs and people like you to become paid consultants and teachers from digital products.

In other words, the field of online education is wide open and ready for your taking!

You can take what you know–your years of expertise and knowledge–and sell it.

But in doing so you need to design a product based off of what the customer wants. So in essence you need to reverse engineer your product creation and marketing process with the end consumer in mind.

We want to think like our customer. We want to create products that solve their problems and create marketing that they enjoy going through, and this entire process should be educational and fulfilling.

It’s often said that people love to buy, but they don’t like to be sold to.

Thinking like your customer in your research efforts should lead you to creating products and marketing that hit their hot buttons and motivate them to buy.

When I want to make a hole in a wall at my house I don’t want to be sold on the benefits of a drill bit. I just want the benefit of buying something–in this case the drill bit–that helps me more easily put a hole in my wall. So if I want to sell a drill bit then I need to think about the customer who will be buying the drill bit and what motivations they have. From there I create a product, a sales process, and marketing that speaks to those specific needs.

If you can pay attention to the motivations of other people and put yourself in their shoes you can create a great deal of success for you in your entrepreneurial endeavors and in your personal life!

Problem: You want to start a business and earn an income from what you know. OR, you already have a business and you’re trying to figure out how to leverage your expertise and turn it into an added revenue stream. OR, you have a product or service and it isn’t doing as well as you would like.

Solution: This is a very broad topic to tackle but at the core of everything that entrepreneurs do you need to understand and know WHO you are selling to. When I say “think like like your customer”, I say this because it is the customer that you will be serving. The customer is the one that will define your business. Therefore it makes sense for you to begin with them in mind. The creation of digital products–or what is more affectionately called information products by most Internet Marketers–can be a great starting point to beginning or growing an existing business. Plus, when you can create a digital product that showcases your expertise it has a compound affect where it brands you as an expert in the online space and provides other opportunities for you to serve more people.

To your success,

Dean

@DeanCantave

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