Selling Services - Test the Hypothesis

An important way to save time and money starting up your business is to test your hypothesis, and I break these down into Plan A and Plan B. Plan A is of course what I uniquely teach (although it is commonly executed by those who thrive in this business) and Plan B is the harder, more unlikely way to start, although Plan B is what most people assume the biz is all about.

A twist on this is selling of services. So often people just assume there is a customer, based on anecdote. The key here is again, testing your hypothesis, testing whether people will buy a service from YOU.

The way to do this is simply ask: Pick a customer you would expect to be yours if you began a business, and propose “I believe I you would pay me 10% of your savings if I could shave 25% off your hotel bill budgets. Am I right?” No need to try to sell anything, just test your hypothesis. Do this before you put a dime into your business: before cards, before logo, before license... before anything.

As usual, testing the hypothesis helps the design process,since if the answer is “no” the potential customer will tell you why. That reason is what you need to work on.

There is more to this process, and this meeting. If they like the service you propose, then ask why they will work with you, and not someone else. The reason may surprise you. Listen closely, the reason will tell you what to work on. The reason is likely to be something smaller than you think... hard to explain right now, but ask these people how come YOU, and not someone else. A good way to ask is “What exactly is it you want me to do for you?”

Ken Wong at HK PolyTech has as a topic “business start-up as personal transformation.” I think this is a fascinating topic. Being shot down as you start up a business tells you what you need to work on, personally.

Often we assume people want to hire for one thing, but later find it it is for another thing. Make sure you understand clearly why they want YOU. And then build your service design around that, and nothing else.
 

Bookmark this post --- Email this post