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The Process of Creating A Real Product

pickeringmt

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Great info! I'm in the same process as you! I have everything launched, but I'm not seeing the great sales I was hoping (like anyone).

Congrats for starting up!
Hey, you too!

Hop in on my other thread about creating products too!
 
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pickeringmt

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Wait I'm confused. I saw a large response in the email alert, but now I don't see it in this thread. What is the other thread?
I had my threads mixed up - i have a progress thread on the inside. :facepalm::facepalm:
 

dotyy

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I had my threads mixed up - i have a progress thread on the inside. :facepalm::facepalm:
Still a little confused haha. Well anyways I saw in the email before I deleted it that your sales are in the hundreds. I've had one sale. haha. What are your advertising methods and how are you building your brand?
 
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pickeringmt

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I think too many businesses see the product as the end of the line for the customer.

This is a totally flawed perspective.

The truth is, your relationship pretty much begins with the customer adopting your product.

It's like meeting a girl.

To many guys think that "getting the girl" is the goal. It's keeping her that is the goal.

You can do it all to get her to buy into you, but when she does you'd better be ready to back the dream you've been selling her or she will drop your a$$ like a bad habit.

It is the same way with customers.

If your focus is just on turning and burning, you'll end up all alone.

When my customers buy a product, they are immediately a member of my club. There is no charge, there are no requirements, and they don't know that they have joined anything. This club is made up of all of the people that saw my products as worth having.

These people are, and always will be worth taking care of.

Worth emailing.

Worth sending a card.

Anybody that has kept your business going by being your customer is worth much more than the money they have paid you.

In the end, no customer is trying to buy your product - they are buying a pathway from where they are to where they want to be.

This is the consumer mentality.

It is your job to be the guide on this journey. Your product is the donkey, but you are the sherpa. It is your job to get them to the top of consumer fantasy mountain :D.
 

AllenCrawley

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That's some gold nuggets right there.

Far too many have a churn and burn approach. Many here will look at the implementation of a "funnel" (as been discussed on this forum) as the opportunity to milk the customer for more and think they will have accomplished "nurturing" that customer relationship post first sale BUT what you're talking about here is much deeper.

It's about making that customer feel like they are a part of something special even though they, like you said, don't know they've joined anything. When someone reads The Millionaire Fastlane they've joined something special. When someone buys an Apple product they've become a part of a special group.

Sure, optimize each customer LTV but if you create a "product centered" business customers will be begging you for more and more products. @MJ DeMarco gets countless requests to write another book. People line up outside of Apple stores for hours to buy the latest and greatest.

Rep+
 
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pickeringmt

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pickeringmt

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Hey, I was talking with another member and he suggested I put the following story up here:

So about a week ago I had my first local sale come through the site. I've had plenty of local sales, but these are all pretty much done person to person.

Anyways, I offer the option for free delivery in town and this guy had chosen it.

So the next morning I give him a call to find out where he wants me to deliver it to:

"Hey man, this is Ian over at My Business. I just wanted to see where you would like me to bring your order. What do you have going on today?"

customer "Oh, really? You guys are here in town? Aren't you the owner? The guy that does all the stuff on the site?"

Me - "Yeah, that's me, and I live about 5 minutes from you. I'd be happy to bring your order to you anywhere in town here. Do you want me to bring it to the address that you put here on the order, or would you like me to meet you somewhere else?

customer- "YOU'RE going to bring it to me? Oh... cool man... uh... yeah I don't have much going on today....I am just hanging out at home for now - that's the address I gave you on the order"

Me- "Well hey, how bout I bring it over to you? Does now work?"

Ten minutes later I am at the dudes front door, talking about beards, my business, and french bulldogs.

I could tell two things -
  1. He probably thought I was going to have a bigger beard
  2. He couldn't believe that there was an honest to God human being behind an online business
We had a great talk, and I think he got a great impression of what my company is all about - straight from me.

So, next time you find yourself wondering something like "How can I possibly compete with big guy X?" - ask yourself if big guy X will show up at your customers door with an order.

Ask yourself if Big Guy X will send your customers a Christmas card.

Ask yourself if Big Guy X is living their brand every minute of every day.

If the answer is no, then it is actually big guy X that should be worried about you.

Don't try to beat a competitor at what they are doing right. Dont try to be cheaper than Walmart. You don't need to - nobody is asking for that.

Beat them at what you do best and where they fail - that is the core of your product and the essence of your brand.

I can't beat Mike Tyson in a fight, but I'll bet you dollars to doughnuts that I could whip his a$$ in a spelling bee.

People want to feel special. People want the high end treatment that should come along with a quality product.

Be that product, be that brand - give that feeling of above average to your customers and they will never question coming to you.
 

pickeringmt

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AllenCrawley

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Hey, I was talking with another member and he suggested I put the following story up here:

So about a week ago I had my first local sale come through the site. I've had plenty of local sales, but these are all pretty much done person to person.

Anyways, I offer the option for free delivery in town and this guy had chosen it.

So the next morning I give him a call to find out where he wants me to deliver it to:

"Hey man, this is Ian over at My Business. I just wanted to see where you would like me to bring your order. What do you have going on today?"

customer "Oh, really? You guys are here in town? Aren't you the owner? The guy that does all the stuff on the site?"

Me - "Yeah, that's me, and I live about 5 minutes from you. I'd be happy to bring your order to you anywhere in town here. Do you want me to bring it to the address that you put here on the order, or would you like me to meet you somewhere else?

customer- "YOU'RE going to bring it to me? Oh... cool man... uh... yeah I don't have much going on today....I am just hanging out at home for now - that's the address I gave you on the order"

Me- "Well hey, how bout I bring it over to you? Does now work?"

Ten minutes later I am at the dudes front door, talking about beards, my business, and french bulldogs.

I could tell two things -
  1. He probably thought I was going to have a bigger beard
  2. He couldn't believe that there was an honest to God human being behind an online business
We had a great talk, and I think he got a great impression of what my company is all about - straight from me.

So, next time you find yourself wondering something like "How can I possibly compete with big guy X?" - ask yourself if big guy X will show up at your customers door with an order.

Ask yourself if Big Guy X will send your customers a Christmas card.

Ask yourself if Big Guy X is living their brand every minute of every day.

If the answer is no, then it is actually big guy X that should be worried about you.

Don't try to beat a competitor at what they are doing right. Dont try to be cheaper than Walmart. You don't need to - nobody is asking for that.

Beat them at what you do best and where they fail - that is the core of your product and the essence of your brand.

I can't beat Mike Tyson in a fight, but I'll bet you dollars to doughnuts that I could whip his a$$ in a spelling bee.

People want to feel special. People want the high end treatment that should come along with a quality product.

Be that product, be that brand - give that feeling of above average to your customers and they will never question coming to you.

@Vigilante I'm tagging you so you don't miss this. An excellent example of Legendary Service.

For those that may have missed Vig's thread on Legendary Companies:
https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/community/threads/companies-becoming-legendary.51791/

@MJ DeMarco - SUCS anyone?

 
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pickeringmt

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Thanks Allen

The thread you shared reminded me of my most "legendary" display of customer service so far.

I had a guy that had found me on reddit and was interested in my products. He actually posted a thread on there asking if anyone had tried my products. My business was about a month old at the time, so I jumped on and told him exactly that - Im new, but I use my products and here is why they kick a$$.

So he orders them, and a week or two goes by. I went back to the reddit post and message him asking him what he thinks about the products?

He comes back and tells me he loves them, but had a car accident and one of them was destroyed in the accident somehow.

I think to myself - how much would that suck? He not only wrecked his truck, but didn't even get to TRY my product. From an economic standpoint this makes the cost of my product INFINITE to this customer.

So I did what I would want to be done for me. I send him another one. I don't ask him, I don't tell him - I just send it.

Here is the cut and paste message I get on reddit (edited):

Ian, it's Michael here. You sir, are a f****g rockstar of a man. Thank you, thank you, thank you, and then some. I couldn't believe my eyes when I checked the mail today. A brand new (product) and a note, to boot. You are a scholar, a gentleman, a judge of good character and fine whiskey. Even though it might just seem like it's "just a little bit of (product)", to me it was an act of great kindness. I honestly don't know how I could ever truly express my gratitude. When I come up with a way to do so you can rest assured knowing that your act of kindness will be rewarded my good man, regardless of if that was your desired result or not. Again thank you from the deepest depths of my heart. I will not forget this....

This cost me less than $5.

How much was it worth to micheal?
 
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jon.a

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Thanks Allen

The thread you shared reminded me of my most "legendary" display of customer service so far.

I had a guy that had found me on reddit and was interested in my products. He actually posted a thread on there asking if anyone had tried my products. My business was about a month old at the time, so I jumped on and told him exactly that - Im new, but I use my products and here is why they kick a$$.

So he orders them, and a week or two goes by. I went back to the reddit post and message him asking him what he thinks about the products?

He comes back and tells me he loves them, but had a car accident and one of them was destroyed in the accident somehow.

I think to myself - how much would that suck? He not only wrecked his truck, but didn't even get to TRY my product. From an economic standpoint this makes the cost of my product INFINITE to this customer.

So I did what I would want to be done for me. I send him another one. I don't ask him, I don't tell him - I just send it.

Here is the cut and paste message I get on reddit (edited):



This cost me less than $5.

How much was it worth to micheal?
I hope to meet you some day :)
 
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dotyy

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Absolutely brilliant posts! Yesterday my e-commerce website had a HUGE issue where customers couldn't even pay and check out. We received 'orders' that auto cancelled because they couldn't pay! Obviously this is not how an e-commerce site is optimized! :p

I was on the phone with GoDaddy/WooCommerce/Paypal for over 6 hours and fixed the issue finally with it costing me $30 in upgrade fees.

Finally, we are in the process of calling back all of the orders that couldn't be completed and offered a larger discount code thanking them for sticking with us. Hopefully this translates into lifetime customers. Seeing MJ's video and the story from @pickeringmt makes me happy to continue great customer service. It is now what I will pride my new business on.

Thanks guys.
 

pickeringmt

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It is now what I will pride my new business on.
You can't go wrong with an attitude like that my friend

And trust me, I have had a few of those days myself

What truly makes us who we are isn't what we tell ourselves we believe, it's how we respond to life when it happens
 
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marklov

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What are your thoughts on private labeling space from the manufacturing perspective?

While I do like the potential of the internet based businesses I am more drawn to physical products and manufacturing has always been an area that has long held my interest.
 

pickeringmt

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What are your thoughts on private labeling space from the manufacturing perspective?
I would love to get into this myself at some point, but I just haven't gotten there yet

I think it is a great model and the same principles apply - you are just expected to control someone else's quality rather than your own.

I see it being a lot like a referral, which is something I do all the time.
 
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DustinG

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Great points, especially about branding.

I'm about 3 quarters of the way through the book 'Invent It, Sell It, Bank It!' by Lori Geiner (from Shark Tank), which is probably the best book I've read on creating & producing products.

It's really good, and covers all the steps & process behind creating physical products. She tasks about everything from coming up with ideas, validating the idea, finding companies to produce products, setting pricing, funding, getting products into retailers, etc..

I never really considered creating my own physical products (as I guess I assumed it was real difficult), but this book definitely simplifies the process a lot.
 

TedM

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probably the best book I've read on creating & producing products
Stephen Key has a book on this, in addition to his one on Licensing. I think it's called One Simple Idea for Entrepreneurs. I liked his more than most others I've read, including Lori's.
 

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@pickeringmt
Awesome thread. But I think it's important to add some background to your case.
Health and Personal care has very strict guidelines for packing/labeling AND Advertising. The claims you make about your product can result in a beatdown from the FDA.
In other industries, you can write your copy based on all the benefits of the product. The sky is the limit.
But in health/personal care the law requires that you can only list benefits that do not need to be proven by scientific studies. That leaves you with stupidly obvious benefits and not much else. Even this is a grey area. An ad you thought was within the law may not be, and all hell can break loose.
Big companies can get away with strong claims by conducting expensive 3rd party studies on their products, which essentially validate their claims.


Small companies like us need to toe-the-line VERY carefully.

Looking forward to reading more from you!
 
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pickeringmt

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@wilddog yeah, this is totally true. I am looking at having testing done and it aint cheap.

That has been one of the main drivers to be totally customer-centric with my business. It shows that as a brand you have a no bs mindset, and that has also transferred over to my products as well.

The truth is, and always will be, that a product simply may not work for some people for whatever reason. You get into personal care products and that becomes even more true with natural ingredients - stuff that really has no documented testing.

A lot of supplements are like this too.

So the reality has to become, "hey, try my product - if it isn't what you want it to be, then I don't even want you to pay for it"

I don't want a customer to have the downside, because it isn't necessary. I know my product is great - I use it myself. Plenty of other people will see it is worth every penny.

The only things that can get out of alignment occasionally are the expected outcomes and the x-factor of just not being right for everyone.
 

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I am in the prototyping stage of a product in the "Pet" niche. I am finding it difficult to draft what I need to get a few quality prototypes from overseas. I have created 1 prototype and perfected it by hand, but don't know how to convey to these people exactly what I want. Anyone have any experience dealing with overseas manufacturers in the beginning stages?
 

pickeringmt

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With the Holidays coming up, I wanted to mention something that has been a big part of the success of my brand.

I have noticed that there is this mindset of "defensive competition" as the default for a lot of businesses.

There is a quote the says something along the lines of, "if you try to stay at the front of the crowd, you will never go any farther than the crowd."

I think i butchered that, but you get the point.

What I want to put to you today is an idea that has made my business stand out in a very, very saturated niche.

The element of surprise.

The truth is, I am constantly looking for ways to surprise my customers with something cool.

for example, whenever I ship an order I print a small card for the customer and write them a little note. Nothing crazy, but something just for them.

I don't tell customers that I do this, I just do it. If they knew it was coming, the value would be gone.

So rather than trying to use it as a marketing tool and put it up front that I include these notes to my customers with every order, I just do it quietly.

Surprise service is always much more powerful than the expected.

Engage with your customers, know them personally if you can, and find ways to surprise them. The opportunities will always present themselves, and these are the real opportunity for you to set yourself apart from the pack.
 
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chris_chringle

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I can already hear the comments about this not being fastlane – a product at this point really is not. The point is that you could build it from here into a fastlane business, and this whole process for me in my own business cost me a total of about $500, which I have made back within a month or two in a more crowded niche than I would go into if I did this again.

You hit it right on the head. These were my thoughts exactly before I started my own product business but I'm happy I did. Having something tangible is a great way to get started.
 

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Any chance
Rep transferred, thank you so much for sharing.

I also think that a lot of great Fastlane opps are in actual physical product businesses. Seems nowadays everyone defaults to online which its increasingly becoming crowded.
Any chance of this becoming gold? It seems like a very informative post but I found it on the second page almost lost in the threads.
 

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@pickeringmt - very good post indeed!

Teaching is a hard thing to do. While all of us can regurgitate factual knowledge we learn from someone else, in order to really be effective as teachers we must internalize the facts. In this way the facts can be delivered in combination with dynamics. It's the difference between static facts and dynamic representation of facts. Works the same way in violin playing, real estate, and internet marketing. It is evident from your post that you've internalized some things...

I would only add that it takes passion! My product at JustAskBenWhy.com is educational. I launched in February of 2013. For a year prior, every night 8PM - 3 AM I was in the basement working on this course - not knowing whether anyone would ever be interested. But, I was so engaged with it that the thought of quitting never entered my mind. In retrospect, that was passion...and we need that!
 

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