How to tell people your product is really different than the other tools they know that market themselves similarly?

#3: Know Your Team’s CEO, Claire Lew (@Claire), highlights what has aided her in flipping what’s typically perceived as a good-to-have into a must-have product. (Source)

#1: Find a way to position your product so it IS a must-have + directly contributing to buyer’s balance sheet. This usually means a few options. You can:

  • Position your product to only a segment of your original audience that feels the need, stronger than anyone. (E.g.: We specifically seek out working with new managers because they are feeling the pains of not knowing what to do as a manager. As a result, KYT is a must-have to them, versus someone who has been managing a team for 5+ years).
  • Show how your product affects your buyer’s balance sheet. (E.g., We have a One-on-Ones Tool that talks about how 89% of managers see better performance from their team when they’re doing regular one-on-ones).
  • Change your product so it delivers on a promise that affects your buyer’s balance sheet. (E.g.: We have a Heartbeat Check-in that saves our managers hours of times every week. And for managers, time = money.)

#2: Appeal to the most painful, frustrating moments that your customers are facing – and then alleviate them. A product doesn’t feel like a must-have if the customer isn’t feeling the problem strongly enough. So then you’ll need to ask yourself:

  • Are we tackling a painful enough problem? Or is there a different one we should tackle? (E.g., We used to be focused solely on tackling “lack of team feedback” as the problem – but then realized “accidentally becoming a bad boss” was a more painful problem. So then, we rebuilt the product to be what it is today.)
  • Are we focused on a customer segment that is actually truly feeling this exact problem? Similar to what I described above, you might not be focused on the right people – and perhaps there’s another subset of users who is experiencing the pain + frustration that your product will alleviate.
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