Last post I talked about creating a market and ended on the note that qualification is key to truly bringing a market online. In order to sell something, you MUST convince the buyer.
So how do we, as sellers, convince someone to buy our product? We simply have to prove its value. If you’re lucky, the value of your product is innately understood in the marketplace. Even when you’re not qualifying the need for A product you are qualifying the need for YOUR product, right here right now. To do that, you need a value proposition.
Without getting to in depth, you need to create an environment where the need for your product is realized. There are many ways to do this but the most natural is context. Let’s take an example.
Toilet Paper
You are going to eat. Your body will extract all the nutrients of that food and dismiss the rest. At which point it will expel any unneeded or unwanted byproducts. Now the body is a beautiful thing but sometimes it just doesn’t get the job done and you’re there left to clean up the mess. Low and behold, I’ve got just the thing to help you out… toilet paper.
There you go, you’ve described a situation, highlighted the problem, and supplied a solution, your product. All in a context that anyone can understand.
But why?
Well besides the hygienic reasons, and I’m no doctor, I can definitively say that you don’t want to smell. Why? Because the people you interact with on a daily basis expect you not to smell like shit. It is the law of the land by which we live.
And there’s your social validation. If you want to be part of a normal, functioning society, you’ve got to keep yourself clean. And the best way to do that is by using my product, toilet paper.
Seeing a digitized image of a white, fluffy roll of paper on Ebay does little to convey the need for such a product. But the context by which we live and the societal rules that we abide by clearly prove the need for Charmin Extra Soft.
Clarkebar's Blog 