Hey there everyone!
This week, we’re looking at how community-led businesses can take bold actions to achieve product-market fit – and sell more stuff – a whole lot quicker!
Because, at the end of the day, whether we’re selling a product, service or something else…aren’t we all just trying to serve something that our prospective customers actually want to buy?!
As business owners or marketers, we can often get lost in a fog of listening to mixed messages from the wrong people, our own egos thinking we know exactly what people are desperate to buy…
Or we simply follow the latest trends and lose sight of our core values and focus…(this happens a lot when some musicians lose their current audience because they’re trying to stay relevant, but in the end, they don’t serve up anything useful and their latest release ends up in the bargain bin soon after launch day…)
Of course, a perfect product-to-consumer fit is easier said than done, but you can sell more stuff if you put the right framework and structure in place.
You’ll also find that engaging the right group of ‘top customers’ and community members can act as a kind of steering committee, and an extra source of knowledge to go alongside your sales data and customer feedback.
So here are 5 great ways you can sell more stuff by leveraging your community and customers…
- Customer Insights: A thriving community offers direct access to your target audience. You can easily set up 3 ways to get feedback whenever you need it:
One-on-one calls with your founding team (you should religiously schedule say 3 calls each week with different stage customers of yours), a special email address to send in deep feedback and creative ideas for your top 10% of customers, and host regular events to get genuine insights from your hardcore following when they’re in guard down/honest feedback mode. - Product Testing: Invite community members to test your new offerings. Find out who are your most active users and customers and invite them to a private beta (for tech/app nerds), or simply a regular call with your product/Marketing team to get their insights.
You can even set up special product/campaign testing calls with certain segments of your audience – i.e. Just onboarded vs legacy users of your products for more than 2 years. - Co-Creation and Collaboration: Involve your community in the development process, which will let their ideas shape your product’s evolution.
I used to love running hackathons (which can be technical or non-technical) as they can really focus the mind on one goal if you bring your top customers into a setting where their creative ideas can run wild (this also works virtually, however nothing still beats IRL) - Validation and Market Research: Engaging with your community validates your product concept. Your top customer insights help you stay ahead of market trends. The devil is in the details and turning your top customers into your own industry research ambassadors could well be one of the smartest ideas you have!
Who do your top customers think are doing a great job in your industry? Who are the new up-and-comers you’ve never heard of in your field? What problems do users of your rivals have based on comments on their social channels etc?
The cost? A low monthly retainer, some great merch and some behind-the-scenes access to you and your company for these ambassadors – simple! - Building Trust and Loyalty: Strong community ties can foster trust and loyalty, creating advocates for your product on and offline. Create loyalty programs to sell more stuff or give away freebies to your most engaged users to test out your new products.
Get them out into the open and see if they work, create desire and find out what could be made better. This could work for pretty much any product or service (as long as you can build a prototype and test the theory)
So there we have it everyone, 5 great ways to help you get to product market fit quicker and sell more stuff – I hope it’s been helpful!