How to find customers: You don't need a map. You need a GPS

I recently launched a “shot across the bow” style mini promotion of my Action Packs product. After spending a couple hundred dollars on a Facebook ad campaign as well as a few outbound emails to the guys on my mailing list, I eagerly awaited high clickthroughs and signups for what I thought was a too-good-to-pass-up offer. 

As fate would have it, my offer was less “too-good-to-pass-up” and more “who is this dude and why-the-F-would-I-give-a-💩?!” 
Now, don’t get it twisted... Action Packs are awesome and my bet is that you will eventually buy one or two (or six), but what I’ve come to learn is that now is not the time to ask you, or anyone else for that matter, for a sale.  

“what I’ve come to learn is that now is not the time to ask you for a sale”

I didn’t take time to understand where I was, and more importantly, where I was in relation to the people who give me their attention.

Know where you’re at FFS. 

Knowing where you’re at is half the battle won - in this world of endless distractions, it’s all to easy to succumb to information overload, short circuit your brain and ultimately achieve next to nothing.  

In my eagerness to get my Action Packs product out to the world, I neglected two fundamental principles of any sound value proposition.

Do they want it?

This is the fundamental question anyone who needs to share anything with anyone else needs to ask themselves. I projected my enthusiasm for the Action Packs product to my audience, without bothering to find out whether the Packs take away pain that people in my audience geniunely have. 

Focus on your market, not your goddamn product.

Re-reading the email communication I had sent out to my list subscribers as well as the promotional material I put out via my ad campaign, makes me squirm. My messaging could’ve inadvertently created the impression that the recipient of my content is secondary in importance to the wonderfulness that is my product. Awkwardness level = 10/10.

I’ve learnt through trial and error (and the wise words of close friends) that my focus needs to be squarely on you, the person reading this. Understanding you and your world is the only way I can hope to have a chance in hell of effectively serving you. You’d think a career (client-facing) entrepreneur would know better . 

So, now what? Well I for one have no intentions of launching any “buy my stuff!!” antics anytime soon. I’ll be posting content on a weekly basis which (cross thumbs) makes your week less shitty while providing something to work with, or at the very least ponder. I’ll also find ways of eliciting your feedback, comments and interaction as we shape whatever hot AF stuff That Sorted Life comes up with in future. 

Here’s to us (toast). 

See you on the other side. 

✌🏾