Once upon a time there was a bookkeeper who wanted to make a contribution and needed to make a profit.

She was very, very good at what she did and once someone became a client they remained a client.

But it seemed to the bookkeeper that it took a very long time to get new clients. Not that there weren’t a lot of people out there
the bookkeeper knew she could help. She saw lots of business owners who were struggling to get organized during tax season, who didn’t know which customers owed them money, and who spent hours trying to find receipts so they could get their computer repaired under warranty. The bookkeeper would think, “if they just knew about me and how good I am, I bet some of those people would hire me.”
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If your business sells information products or you’re interested in getting started with information products, you have probably struggled with the “Push-Me, Pull-Me” syndrome.

On the one hand, you feel a lot of pressure to “Get it Out There” and start making money. That’s the “Push-Me” energy.

On the other hand you really want to make sure your product is complete and actually works for customers. That’s the “Pull-Me.”

For many business owners, both impulses can feel equally strong…not unlike two evenly matched teams playing Tug-of-War and if you’ve ever seen two evenly-matched teams playing Tug-of-War, what usually happens? Not very much for a long time. One side gains a little traction but loses ground when the other side gains traction.

In Tug-of-War, the stalemate doesn’t last long because eventually the team with more physical stamina wins. In Push-Me, Pull-Me, it can take a lot longer…in fact it often takes years.

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On cold winter weekends, my teenager loves to fix himself a big breakfast with eggs and toast and breakfast sausage.

If someone else were cooking, my son would probably go for bacon over sausage. But when he cooks he sticks to sausage because “it’s hard to cook bacon evenly…some parts end up burned and other parts end up raw. It’s a lot easier to cook breakfast sausage”

When I go to the store do I buy bacon or sausage? I buy sausage of course because we use it up a lot faster.

If my teenager found bacon easier to cook I’d buy a lot more bacon.

Easy to use = easy to consumer = buy more.

Why am I telling you about my teenager’s breakfast habits? Here’s what’s important: If you offer an information product would you want it to be very easy for your customers to use (like sausage) or more difficult (like bacon)?

This isn’t a trick question. I hope you said “sausage.”

Most Information Products are More Like Bacon

When I look at the information products in the marketplace I see a lot of bacon. Products that aren’t easy for the average customer to use. And most customers don’t like things that are hard to use.

• Because it’s frustrating to have to figure out how to get the information they want
• Because they think maybe they’re the only ones having trouble and that makes them feel dumb
• Because they aren’t getting what they bought the product for…a solution or a result.

Perhaps more importantly, customers are becoming less tolerant when it comes to figuring out how to use information products.

Popularity of Apps-Customers Expect Easy AND Useful

Why? Because people are turning more and more to easy-to use web-based software and mobile apps to get information, be entertained, learn a new skill, and so on.  People LOVE apps because apps are super easy to use and apps are use-full.

For better or worse, apps are changing your customer’s expectations of what they consider “easy to use” and “useful.” This means if your information product is too big, too complex, or poorly organized, people may try your product; they may even buy your product; but they probably won’t come back for more.

If you’re a business owner who sincerely wants to make a contribution, it’s going to be tough to change things for the better if your intended audience can’t find what they want in your ebook or are struggling to get your audio file to play on iTunes.

So how do you make sure your customers will find your information product simple, easy, even fun to use?

Tips for Making Your Information Product Fun and Easy to Use

#1. Do a Simple Beta Test

The very best way to make sure your product is easy to use is to ask 2-3 customers to try your product out.

I’m currently testing a new information product out with 4 business owners. In this case I’m not charging them for the product or my time coaching them and they’re giving me feedback about what’s working and what isn’t working.

When I’m done with the test I’ll be confident that people buying the product will get the results my marketing promises. And I can feel really great about selling something that I know is making a real difference for the people buying.

#2. Focus on One Customer Segment

I’m working with a Tai Chi instructor who works with a variety of students…from recovering stroke patients in rehabilitation to accomplished athletes looking to improve their performance.

Practically speaking, my client knew he had to create his product with one group in mind. Otherwise his product would become unwieldy trying to address the unique needs of each group. Plus he would have to come up with different marketing strategies to get his message in front of each group.

I suggested he choose the one group for which he felt most excited and create his product for that group because his enthusiasm will show up in the way customers experience his product and marketing. There may be fewer elite athletes than stroke patients in rehab but I’ve no doubt my client’s marketing will be a lot more effective and his product will deliver precisely what his customers are seeking.

#3. Cover 80%

When you stop to hink of all the information that goes into the typical information product. It’s no surprise so many information products are complex and hard to use

Is there an easy way to keep your information product compact?

I suggest you use the 80% Rule: your product should address the most common problems experienced by your customers. The ones you hear about 80% of time.

The remaining 20% are the exceptions to the rule. The 50 unusual issues that come up less than 1% of the time.

Often the 80% can be covered in 50 pages and then the next 200 pages cover the exotic 20%.

Do yourself and your customers a favor. Cover the 80% and create material for problems falling into the 20% only when enough people ask for a solution AND are willing to buy your solution.

#4. Connect the Dots

One of my favorite cartoons shows two distinguished-looking professor types standing in front of a chalkboard. On the chalkboard is an elaborate equation full of Greek letters and other intimidating symbols.

One of the men is saying, “I think you should be more explicit here in step two.” Step Two in the equation on the blackboard reads, “Then a miracle occurs.”

As experts, we tend to assume our customers know what we know. But if that were true, they wouldn’t need our information product.

By the way, this is a place where beta testing really helps. If you’ve left something critical out, your beta testers will tell you.

Bottom Line

Getting your information product done so you can “just get it out there” is important. Having good marketing so you can get people to buy your product is importnat. But if your customers can’t use your product to get what they paid for, their next purchase will go to a competitor.

And the popularity of apps is making customers less and less patient with hard-to-use products.

If you’re serious about creating and selling information products that produce revenue and make a contribution, I encourage you to keep the “Bacon Factor” in mind. The relatively small investment you make in making your product easier to use will more than pay off when raving fans keep coming back to buy more and start sending their friends to you as well.

It looks as if the early Christian church was looking for a way to compete with the pagan celebration of Saturnalia – a week-long festival that honored the god of agriculture, Saturn. Apparently, during Saturnalia there was also a group of Romans who celebrated the birth of a sun god named Mithra (who was born from a rock).

Mithra’s birthday was December 25.

So… Bottom line… A fourth century Pope took over 12.25 and set it as the day the Christian church would celebrate the birth of Jesus (a day that wasn’t celebrated until that point).

The right free product helps your business attract
more paying customers.

If you own a small business, the report or assessment, or whatever you’re giving away has only one true purpose: to bring in more paying customers.

Of course you may have a marketing objective for your free product. For example, to make your business more visible so strangers become prospects. But ultimately, at the end of the day, your free product should help you bring in more paying customers.

If you’re giving something away and you’re not seeing an increase in paying customers, it’s time to make a change.

But what to change? Good question! That’s the point of this article so read on.

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This grabbed my attention because I was considering the Jawbone UP for helping me monitor my daily exercise.

A “no questions asked” return policy is ballsy especially for a relatively mainstream corporation. It always gladdens my heart when I see a company treating its customers like mature, thinking adults.

Jawbone CEO offers no questions asked refund to UP owners | ZDNet http://zd.net/rv7BEw

When clients hire me to develop knowledge-based products, the first thing I ask them is this question:

What is the vision for your business and how does your product contribute to that vision?

This question takes some people by surprise. They expect me to get right down to the nuts and bolts by asking them more concrete questions like “who is going to be buying this product?” or “is this going to be an eBook or a DVD?”

And we do get into the nitty gritty questions pretty quickly but before we do it’s important to address issues of vision and mission.

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When I was growing up, canned tuna fish was a lunch time staple usually served with another lunch time staple: macaroni and cheese.

I still like canned tuna fish and water-pack tuna in a big green salad is one of my favorite meals on busy days.

For years I bought name brand tuna at the supermarket. The same brands my mom bought. This worked just fine.

Recently I’ve noticed that the quality has changed. I’ve been finding that one can out of two of the store brand is poor quality. I’m not going to give you the details rather I’ll say that 50% of the time my cats score big and get tuna for dinner.

Even upgrading to solid white albacore hasn’t improved my odds.

So I’m doing what every customer should do when a product doesn’t deliver on its promise: I’m voting with my wallet.

I bought gourmet tuna fish at nearly $6 a can. Although that may seem outrageously expensive I figure if every can I open contains good-tasting tuna, it will be worth it. At $2.50 a can for the stuff I buy at the supermarket, I’m still paying $5/ can if only every other can is edible.

What Does This Have to Do with Your Business?

More than you may think.

No matter what we sell, we don’t have a business if we can’t get and keep customers.

The difference between your business and a company selling cans of tuna fish is one of complexity only.

For a company selling tuna fish, the criteria for keeping customers happy is a relatively simple one: be truthful telling me what to expect and deliver on what you promise at a fair price.

For years, Starkist, Chicken of the Sea, and Bumblebee tuna did exactly that and I kept buying.

Now they don’t and I’ve started buying from a new company.

If you have a small business and particularly if you sell a service, there are more variables involved. For example, if you are a coach how do you define what a “quality experience” is to a client? Is it about helping your client get the results they wanted your help with? Sometimes that’s the case. Sometimes a really good coach or consultant helps their client discover a new entirely different goal to pursue.

Regardless of the complexity one thing is still the same: If you don’t deliver your customer or client will vote with their wallet. They will leave and find a competitor who they think will do a better job giving them what they want.

How to Make Sure You Get and Keep Great Customers

Sometimes when you lose a client, it’s actually a good thing.

Because it turned out that what they really needed wasn’t something you help people with. That’s cool. Hopefully you and your client come to an agreement and part ways amicably. Perhaps you even refer your client to a company that’s better able to meet your client’s needs.

But usually losing a client means something in your sales and marketing process doesn’t work.

If want to get and retain more quality customers, here are three things you want to look at:

#1. Your ideal client or customer definition.

If you don’t have any definition, you need to have one. Even if your definition consists only of negative factors you want to avoid. You need to start somewhere.

If you do have an ideal definition is it accurate? Your definition will shift over time as you have more experience with different customers in different situations. If you don’t update your definition at least once a year, you’re probably working with a definition that’s no longer accurate.

#2. Your sales process.

Part of your sales process should help you screen prospective customers so that the only people you work with are truly ideal.

For example, do you have an application you ask prospective customers to complete before scheduling an appointment to discuss their needs? If you don’t, I highly, highly recommend using an application or assessment. It saves both you and your prospective customers time and energy.

And do you honor your sales process? Do you pay attention to red flags or do you let some people “slip through” because you need the money and you hope the red flags were just red herrings?

#3. Your marketing message.

What does your message currently promise you’ll deliver? And even more importantly, what do your prospects think you’re promising?

You want to make sure that what people think you promise is what you actually can and want to promise. If there’s a discrepancy, it’s important to address the difference as quickly as possible.

Ultimately We”re Talking About Awareness and Accountability

I know I sometimes resist looking at my sales process or marketing message because it will force me to take a public position on what my business stands for. In particular it means I have to clearly say:

“I help these types of clients with these types of problems”

Because the implication is if the someone seeing my message doesn’t fit see his or her problem listed, they’re going to walk away. And they’ll hire someone else.

And our egos HATE that.

But at some point we have to become fully accountable to the longing in our hearts. The longing for what you want your business to make a reality in the world. To say yes to that longing we have to say NO to anything else.

Bottom Line

As small business owners, we’ve got it pretty good. We have the freedom to say “yes” easily to what’s in our hearts and we can quickly to take action to implement what’s consistent with the yes in our heart.

And there are customers who want what we long to offer.

Which is why I’m not expecting to buy a can or Starkist, Chicken of the Sea, or Bumblebee tuna anytime soon. I may still be the customer they want and maybe at some level these companies tell themselves they want to sell a quality product but somewhere along the line what they think I want and what I really want parted ways and I’ve voted on the reality I want with my wallet.

One of the really good or bad things about owning a business is you get to face your fears all the time.

Good because when we face what we fear most and come out on the other side we become so much more effective personally and professionally.

Bad because we have to deal with all our tricks: conscious and unconscious for avoiding potentially painful situations.

My old way of dealing with fear was good old willpower: “Grit your teeth and gut it out.”

How about you, have you been depending on willpower to get difficult but important things done?

Just about all of us have at one time or another.

There’s just one problem with willpower: when we use it to gut through difficult situations, we inevitably pay a very high price.

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Whether you call it your “elevator speech” or “30-second intro” or “audio logo” as a small business owner you know that you need to have a way to introduce yourself that captures the interest of prospective clients.

If the person to whom you’ve introduced yourself says, “Wow, that sounds interesting. Tell me more!” you can be pretty sure that you have a good elevator speech.

The problem is what do you say in response to “Tell me more”?

The Problem: What Most of Us Do

In my experience most of us hear “tell me more” as a request to hear how we help our clients and customers. And we’re off and running into what I call “Processland.”

Here are two examples of a “Processland” response:

From a financial planner:

“I talk to you about your financial goals. Things like retirement, sending your kids to college, and other plans you have. Then I’ll look at how your money is currently invested and whether you need to change how your investments are allocated …”

From a personal trainer:

“During our first visit we’ll get your height and weight and key measurements. Then we’ll talk about your fitness goals; what your resting heart rate and respiration should be for your age, what a healthy weight range would be, and how long it will take for you to get to your optimal weight …”

Now if you’re the person explaining the process, you may be enjoying this part of the conversation because you are talking about something you really love: your work!

Alas for the prospective customer, most process-oriented explanations are deadly dull and do NOT give them the information that they REALLY want to hear.

What Does Your Prospective Customer Really Want to Hear?

When a prospective customer responds with “Tell me more,” what they are really asking for is:

“Can you help someone like me with my particular problem?”

And that’s a good question. It’s a good question especially when your prospect has already tried doing a few things to solve their problem and whatever they’ve tried hasn’t done the trick. So they may be feeling a little discouraged and stressed out about their situation.

They may be thinking, “Oh she’s helped other people but my situation is a particularly difficult one that other experts haven’t been able to help me with.”

When we talk about our generic process we aren’t enabling our prospect to see themselves in the picture.

Fortunately there’s a relatively easy response that paints this picture for your prospect. You tell a story in which your prospect gets to be the main character in a mini-adventure.

How to Create a Mini-Adventure Story Starring Your Prospect

Now most people can tell a story but not everyone can tell a really compelling story. And that’s what you need to do, tell a story that keeps your prospect’s interest. So I’m going to start by giving you the basic template for a great adventure story.

Beginning: Our hero is a good person who wants his or her situation to be better.

Example: Luke Skywalker lives with his aunt and uncle who are farmers on the planet Tatooine. Luke is bored and wants to leave and learn to be a pilot at the Imperial Academy but hasn’t yet  because he knows his uncle needs his help running the farm.

Call to Adventure: An opportunity to improve things appears. Often the opportunity is to attain something even bigger than our hero believed possible.

Example: Luke is intrigued by a message for help sent by a beautiful princess. He becomes apprenticed to a former Jedi Knight, Obi-Wan Kenobi. He accompanies Obi-Wan to rescue the princess and learns about his father who was a great Jedi knight.

Encountering and Overcoming Obstacles: Our hero encounters difficulties along the way but overcomes those difficulties.

Example: Luke has lots of adventures rescuing Princess Leia and fighting with the rebel forces.

Happy Ending: By meeting and overcoming obstacles our hero learns about his strengths and what he is capable of. He becomes a braver, wiser, and better person.

Example: With the help of Obi-Wan, Luke destroys the Imperial Death Star winning a crucial battle for the Rebel Alliance. Luke joins the Rebel Alliance is honored for his bravery by Princess Leia and the Rebel leaders.

Now you’re going to apply the Mini-adventure story structure to create a success story in which your prospect gets to be the hero. I’m going to use the personal trainer as an example so you can see how you could apply it to your own business.

Beginning: Our hero is a good person who wants their situation to be better.

Example: “Most of my clients are men and women in their early and mid-40s who find themselves gaining 10, 20, even 30 pounds. They’re really frustrated because the things they used to do to manage their weight such as cutting out dessert or working out an extra day a week no longer work.“

Call to Adventure: An opportunity to improve things appears. Often the opportunity is to attain something even bigger than our hero believed possible. Note: When you are talking to a prospective customer, the opportunity is often learning from you what is possible.

Example: “People call me because something happens that makes it impossible to keep ignoring the extra weight. For example, just yesterday a woman called me in tears because her 40th high school reunion was coming up and even her “fat jeans” didn’t fit anymore.”

Encountering and Overcoming Obstacles: Our hero encounters difficulties along the way but overcomes those difficulties. Note: Here’s where you get to share how your approach works when other approaches don’t.

Example: “One of my success secrets is getting my clients to set exciting goals in which weight loss is a by-product. Most people do pretty well during the first six weeks but after that they get bored and fall back into their old routines. So we set a more exciting goal. You know the woman who wanted to look great for her high school reunion? She wanted to learn Ball Room dancing so I had her enroll in dance lessons.

End: By meeting and overcoming obstacles our hero learns about his strengths and what he is capable of. He becomes a braver, wiser, and better person.

Example: When I help clients reach a bigger, more exciting goal they are not only happier with how they look and feel, they are more confident and feel better about themselves because they did something they didn’t think they were capable of. I’ve noticed that the clients who experience inner and outer changes have been the most successful at maintaining their new weight and staying healthy.

Now It’s Your Turn

Using the mini-adventure template, write a story that you tell prospects when they ask to hear more about what you do.

Bottom Line

When a prospective client responds to your elevator speech with “That’s interesting, tell me more” they are NOT saying, “Tell me the process you will use to help me solve my problem.” They are saying, “Tell me a story about how you helped someone like me overcome the challenges I’m facing.”

The next time a prospect says, “Tell me more,” try telling them a story in which you help them be the hero. And see if that doesn’t increase the number who say, “That sounds great, when do we start!”

In this way you both get a happy ending.