Building What People Want to Buy: Unlocking the Secrets to Business Success

Key Takeaways:

• Listen to Customers: Understanding what your customers want is crucial for business growth.
• Adapt and Evolve: Be willing to change your service or product based on consistent feedback.
• Hire Expertise: Bring in team members who are experts in areas you may not be to mitigate challenges.

Building What People Want: The Core of a Successful Business

Businesses often find themselves at crossroads between what they envision their product or service to be and what customers actually need. Understanding and navigating this balance can make the difference between soaring success and disappointing failure. As Alane and Micah from "Automate Your Agency" articulate, the journey towards building what customers want to buy is a challenging yet rewarding endeavor.

Listening to Customer Feedback for Product Development

A recurring theme in the transcript is the importance of listening to customer feedback. As Alane wisely notes, "It sounds so simple to build what people want to buy, but it's harder than it sounds." When clients repeatedly voice specific needs or issues, it's a clear signal that their requirements might differ from your original vision.

Micah illustrates this point with a compelling anecdote about their early software product, a contest and giveaway builder aimed at generating sales leads. Despite the product's effectiveness, they continuously lost significant deals because their target audience was more interested in social media engagement than direct sales leads. "We'd make it to the end, but we'd always lose," Micah recalls. This repeated feedback should have prompted them to pivot sooner.

By ignoring what potential customers were practically shouting at them, they missed opportunities and watched their competition, Wildfire, sell to Google for $450 million. This experience led them to create five business tenets, the first being to "build what people want to buy," cementing the critical lesson to heed customer demands.

Adapting Service Offerings Based on Market Needs

Adapting service offerings based on customer needs is another cornerstone of business success. Alane shares an illuminating example from their social media agency days. Initially focused on content creation, they noticed a growing demand for advertising services among their clients. "That became a third of our business," she recalls, demonstrating how listening to customer feedback can significantly boost revenue.

Alane and Micah's ability to adapt their offerings didn't stop there. They identified another need in reputation management based on frequent client complaints about negative reviews. By expanding their services to include reputation management, they not only fulfilled a market need but also diversified their revenue streams. "It helped us to really focus in and also allowed us to narrow down," Micah explains, emphasizing the benefits of listening and adapting.

This principle applies equally to software products as it does to services. In their current venture, they expanded their expertise from just Asana to also include ClickUp and Monday, based on rising demand and feedback. This adaptability ensures they offer comprehensive solutions while staying relevant in a rapidly evolving market.

Leveraging Team Expertise for Business Growth

To effectively implement the changes and expansions based on customer feedback, it's essential to leverage team expertise. Alane and Micah are quick to point out that "you don't have to be the one to do it." Hiring team members with expertise in areas outside your ken can be revolutionary.

For instance, when they decided to offer reputation management services, they didn't rely on their existing knowledge but brought in experts who excelled in that area. This move allowed them to provide high-quality services without stretching themselves too thin. "The most rewarding thing we've done is hiring team members that have the expertise so you don't have to," Alane states.

This strategy not only facilitates growth but also enhances the quality of service, keeping client satisfaction high. It underscores the idea that a well-rounded team can address a range of customer needs more efficiently, fostering long-term success.

Another compelling example is how they navigated integrating and automating various software platforms as part of their service offerings. Realizing that clients operated multiple software systems, often inefficiently, they adapted to provide integration and automation solutions. This specialized service required hiring experts in different project management and CRM systems, enabling them to expand their range without compromising on quality.

To achieve meaningful growth, business owners must be willing to adapt, evolve, and listen to their customers. Building what people want to buy isn’t always intuitive, but it’s a necessity for sustained success. Focus on listening, adapt your offerings, and bring in the right expertise to make your vision a reality. These principles can transform your operations, helping you navigate market demands with confidence and agility. Alane and Micah's journey, filled with lessons of triumph and hard-won wisdom, serves as a roadmap for any business striving to align its offerings with customer needs.