Transform Your Business: Sam Chapman’s Blueprint for Product Success

Welcome to the Bring Your Product Idea To Life podcast. This is the podcast for you if you're getting started selling products or if you'd like to create your own product to sell.

I'm Vicki Weinberg, a product creation coach and Amazon expert. Every week I share friendly practical advice as well as inspirational stories from small businesses. Let's get started.

Hi.

So today on the podcast, I'm speaking to Sam Chapman.

Sam helps product based business owners stand out, attract new customers and sell more products products by creating irresistible offers without discounting. I had a great conversation with Sam. Sam is a product coach. He's also had his own hair salon, his own range of hair products as well.

So he's definitely been in both service and product based businesses.

And he has so much useful advice, some that I've never heard before, which is always really exciting, about how to create your products, how to grow your business and the kind of products that it's great for everyone to have in their portfolio. So I really hope you enjoyed this conversation with Sam as much as I enjoyed recording it. And now I would love to introduce you to Sam. So. Hi Sam. Thank you so much for being here.

Hello. And thank you for having me. I'm really excited about this chat today.

Yeah, me too. So can you start by, please give an introduction to yourself, your business and what you do.

Yeah. So my name's Sam Chapman and I am a.

I'm a small business owner and I now coach other small business owners, and specifically product business owners to make more sales, stand out in front of their perfect customers and create a life for themselves that they really want to achieve without the stress and the struggle that I personally went through when I first started on my own business journey.

That's amazing. Thank you.

And of course I've got so many follow up questions, but let's start with your own business story because I'd love to know how you got to where you are now. Obviously I know a little bit about your background, but for everyone at home, tell us how you got here.

Yeah, so, well, 10 years ago, I thought it was going to be a great idea to open up my own hair salon. So I left school at 16. I was fed up of all of the learning you had to do when you're at school. It wasn't for me at all.

And I went off to do an apprenticeship and hairdressing and that's where I went. So then I worked my way. It's like, right, I'm going to own my own business. I don't want to work for anybody else anymore. I want to be my own boss.

And there. And like, the first problem really is that I didn't actually know how to run a business. I didn't know what I was doing.

I just had this big dream and was like, how am I actually going to make this work? And I spent two years struggling in debt. I struggled to pay my mortgage. I just really didn't actually have a clue what I was doing.

My poor mum, bless her, had to bail me out of quite close to bankruptcy a couple of times because I just didn't know. I didn't have a clue what I should and shouldn't be doing. So then up came this post on Instagram.

And I don't know if it come up before or if it was just that I started looking and paying attention was this mentor that appeared and was like, he could help me and he could help me turn my business around and put systems and strategies in place to actually go, you know what? This is how you make a business a success. So I went further into debt and decided this was my last chance.

I either do this and make a change for myself and go, right, here we go and go all in on this, or I call it quits and I run away and go back to being employed. And being employed was not an option.

So we went and he literally tore what business I had apart and we worked from ground zero and we went step by step by step all the way through again to a business that I went from struggling and we earned 650k within two years. And this was all through having help and asking for help. And then from that, I then opened another salon and I started my own hair care line.

And because I wanted to see if I could bring something that I felt was missing, that I could work with my clients and customers to give them products that they wanted and they needed and they were looking for.

So I went down this road of, yeah, working with manufacturers to bring my products to life and selling them through the salons and selling them online. And that's kind of where my passion really started to come alive again.

I was like, there's this thing that I can create and put it into the world and actually share it with not just people that are directly in front of me, but everywhere.

And this learning curve to working with services, to then working with products and saying, right, well, how do I now stand out in front of these other people? How do I connect with these other people? And this is what I has just driven me.

It's driven me to go you know, I can't be the only person that has got to this point and said, I've struggled. I don't actually know where to look.

So I want to be there now to help other people to get past this stumbling block and say, well, actually, if you focus here and you look there, you can get these results.

Thank you so much. I didn't know, I didn't know all of the background of your stories. That's brilliant. Thank you for sharing a bit.

I apologize.

I have to say, the thing that struck me right at the beginning is going from never been in self employment. Opening a salon is a massive thing because obviously you need premises and things. You know, it's not what I'm trying to say.

I think it's actually even in some ways bigger than creating a product because surely there's, you know, you need staff and there's a lot involved. That sounds like a huge undertaking and good for you for doing it.

And I'm so, so pleased it worked out for you because you were talking at the beginning about how passionate you were and you had this dream and I love that. I think it's amazing when people have a dre and it's always really, really sad when people have a dream.

But whether it's lack of experience or understanding or knowledge or something means that doesn't get fully realized. So I think it's great that you got the help that you needed and then were able to grow that business, open more salons.

And then I guess perhaps that led into your confidence around starting to create products because you sort of knew then you could back yourself.

Yeah, I think. Well, I think it's really important keep growing. Like I'm, I've always been somebody that.

And maybe to my detriment as well, in some ways in which I just keep going and going like I reach a goal and then I go, right, okay, what else can I do? What else can I achieve? Because I just want to see what I can do.

But there is a part of that where I go, actually, I don't really look back and go, you know, I'm grateful for what I've accomplished. I, I'm really glad that I put myself in those situations.

That meant I was a bit uncomfortable and meant that, okay, yeah, things could have gone wrong, but I've learned to like pivot a bit and change a bit and go, okay, well, let's keep. See who else can help me and keep growing. And it's why I, I am now so passionate about the people that I work with.

And on a client basis, when I work with small businesses to say, you know, the only reason it's ever over is when you say it's over, like it's not the end of the day until you actually give up and walk away from it.

And I've been in that position where I had two roads in front of me and one was find help, keep going, or the other one was just to walk away and say bye bye. And I think it's something that we can all learn from and think taking within ourselves to say, right, okay, well why am I here in the first place?

What is it that I want to achieve?

That's brilliant. Thank you. I think you're totally right.

And I think, yeah, I'd love to talk a little bit more about your products actually, because I guess selling products is obviously really different from running a service. What were some of the things that you noticed that made products just fit really seamlessly into everything else you were doing?

So for example, when I sell products, one of the things I liked is I wasn't bound by location. I could be working anywhere at any time.

I had small children when I, when I started mine and it was great that I didn't have to be somewhere between set hours, you know, because sales came in and orders got fulfilled. So what, what for you are some of the benefits of selling products?

Yeah, I mean, exactly that. I, the reason, yeah, I loved it was because I no longer had to be standing behind a person to make money.

I could work and create these products, I could put them onto my website and I could make sales all through the night and while I was sleeping. And it just meant then.

And I even then had my staff in the salons packing and postage posting the products for me because I thought, right, well, as I've got, I had in the salon at the time, I think I had about 12 staff. So I was like, well, anyone that hasn't got with customers, I can use them. So I was trying to use as many different people as possible to help me.

But yeah, for me it was the realization that I could keep earning without physically having to be there or really do anything past that point of manufacture and marketing.

And I guess you could also reach more people because like salons are kind of location based businesses, aren't they? Because not many people are going to travel 100 miles, even 50 miles for a haircut.

Some people might, but I guess on the whole there's a geographical area of people that are coming to your salons, whereas with your products you can ship Them around the world.

Yeah. And it's.

It also meant that when people landed onto our salon page, they had more trust in the services that we offered because I had built up the products around it too. So I was trying to work on like a twofold, but people trusted the product because I had a salon business where I had worked with the customers I had.

Now I'm very hot on people running weightless to see what's working, what people want, how people want it, and doing the background knowledge that you should have behind a product to get it sold.

Well, I was already doing that because I had clients in front of me and I was using their input and I was getting them to sample all of my, my products for me. And it meant that, yeah, I had people that trusted my products because of the salon and people trusted my salon because of the products.

And I really liked the way that they worked in tandem together.

Yeah, that makes a lot of sense.

And also, as you were saying, I guess you had people to use your products on so you could try them out, people of different hair types and try them in different ways, see what works, what people like, see what they don't like.

And that must have been brilliant as well to be able to get that real time customer feedback, because that's something that can be, especially selling products online. It's definitely not impossible. I know, but it can be harder to get that, you know, that real time customer feedback.

Yeah. And it's also something that I think a lot of people forget about.

Like they get so passionate about, they want to bring this product to market and they go, right, here is this product, here is what I want to do. Off they go. And they really miss this whole section of, okay, well, who's looking for that product? Why are they looking for that product?

Why do they need it? Why do they want it? How is it going to make them feel?

And I think it's why so many products don't quite hit the mark in the way in which people want them to, is because there's this whole section of market research really that people don't really realize and put enough effort into before bringing a product to market.

You're right.

I think I can definitely see that if you've got what you believe is a great idea and you're really passionate about it, it can be really hard if someone says, oh, but that bit isn't. That bit could be better or I'm not sure about that. It can be so hard when the product is yours, not to take it personally.

And I'M talking from experience here.

And so I think because of that, sometimes people are a little bit hesitant about asking for input because they don't want to get told something could be better because it hurts a little bit, of course.

But ultimately we aren't our customer, are we? Like, we go into this to try and sell it, to sell our products to other people, so they buy it from us.

So we should be getting as much feedback as possible, preferably before something has been launched.

So at least we can see if something has the longevity that we want it to have to see if something does last the way that we want it to last or is as usable as we want it to be used.

Because I think as people start, especially if you go down like a manufacturing route, there are a lot of questions of, okay, well, do you want this or do you want that? Do you want this, do you want that? And obviously everything has got price attached to it.

And I think some people tend to ear on the side of, well, I, I don't want to spend too much on cost per product.

And ultimately it can lead to a product that isn't completely as satisfactory as it could have been had they making different decisions along the way.

And the only reason you know that is when you start, when people start using it and people start doing whatever it is that your product has been designed for.

Absolutely. And I know obviously you can make changes to products as you go along.

So I've worked with brands, for example, who've changed the packaging along the line because there's been something that maybe customers haven't found ideal. So all of that is possible.

However, I totally agree with you that you want to get as much of it right as you can at the outset, because it just makes things so, so much easier.

Of course, yeah. And I think if you're changing things once you've launched, you could already be putting people off.

You could already have something that maybe might put somebody off from buying from you again.

And we want to avoid as much of this as possible when, if you just did a bit more research beforehand, then you could be gaining a much larger audience from it.

Definitely. I'm a big fan of research, so let's. And I think we're going there already, Sam, so let's talk a bit about the work you do now.

One thing I'd like to ask you is because you've obviously, you know, you've had a successful product business, you've worked with lots of others, what do you think are some of the absolute fundamentals that a Successful product business needs to have in place. And I know that's a big question, so we can break these down.

That's quite a big question. Right? So I might have already said it a bit already. So the first is your why.

I believe that do not start a business unless the why for starting that business is strong. And I mean, it's got to be bigger than just making money.

Like you should want to create a business, a brand, a product, whatever it is that you're going into and realize that not every day is going to be a good day. You are going to have days where you're stretched, where you've got bills to pay that you can't afford. I was there.

And you've got customer complaints, you've got customer returns, you've got things going on and you need to have this reason why to stay in front of you and say, you know, actually this is why I'm doing this. These are the people that I want to help. This is why I've created this product.

And when I was going through my time, I had post it notes and I wrote my why down and had them on my mirrors around my flat because I was like, I was, I was in a low place and I was like, I just need to remember why I'm here. Why, why have I started this business? Who are the people I want to help then?

You need to know who this customer is that you're wanting to reach out to. If you don't know who the customer is that you want buying your product from you, you're going to struggle to connect with them.

So you need to again look at, okay, who is your perfect customer? What are they thinking right now? What are they feeling right now? Why are they looking for your product?

What do they want to achieve when they buy your products? Are they really buying products that are similar to yours? And why would they move from that product, your product?

You need to really understand where these people are right now and in their lives and say, right, okay, well how can I stand out in front of them in the best possible way using marketing, messaging, your social media, your website, wherever it is that you're selling from, to actually say, well, this is why I'm here for you. And then you need a product that is sought after. You need to create a product that you know your perfect customer is looking for.

And it's one that is going to either make them feel more desirable or solve a problem for them. Especially if it's a first, your first foray into selling products.

I would strongly Suggest saying, right, you need to find a gap in a market where your perfect customers are and say, right, here is a product that I know that can help you either. Yes. Solve a problem or feel or be more desirable.

That's brilliant. Thank you. Totally agree with all of those.

And I think coming back to the first thing you said about your why, you're right, because let's face it, we, all of us listening, know that selling products is not the easy path to take. It's definitely not the. An easy way to. To make money.

And even if money isn't your sort of primary goal, you still, unless it's a hobby, you obviously, you need to make money for it to be a business. Yeah. But you definitely need some passion around it.

And I also think so obviously I speak to so many people for this podcast and what I love is that everyone I speak to has created their products from a really personal place and it comes across.

And I think it also helps it just feel so much more authentic when people are talking about their products and selling their products when you know that they're really invested in them.

Yeah. And customers feel that as well.

Yeah, absolutely.

If you can show just how passionate you are about something and if, even if it solved any problems for you, like if you're creating something out of a space of, okay, well, I've had this problem, okay, how can I fill this gap for myself? And then you're looking for other people that are going through similar problems to you, and those are the people that you want to talk to.

Then they become your perfect customer. But I think what a lot of people tend to do is put themselves in that situation of I am my perfect customer right here.

Whereas, well, like we said before, you actually aren't your customer.

You need to really understand the people and where their minds are at and how much they are willing to spend or what their circumstances are so that you can stand out in front of them when they're looking for you, when they need you. And I think that's really important.

And I think even if you are your perfect customer. So, for example, my first product was a baby product. I had a young baby at the time, so I kind of was my perfect customer.

I ticked all the right boxes, but I was still only one person. And I think that can be a trap that people can perhaps fall into as well.

And I think I did this with first time round is I kind of thought, well, yeah, I'm this, this is something someone like me with buy. I'm someone like me. I know I know exactly what it is. And actually, that was a mistake because you are only one person.

Even if you are your absolutely ideal customer, there will be other people like you, and you are only one person. And I think the more. More input you can get on your product and all aspects of it, the better.

Of course. Yeah, I think you just need a wider variety of person to give you their opinions and their input.

And I think when you can see how other people are seeing you and what you're selling, it can actually make you reach out and say, you know, actually, okay, I might. This might have been a blind spot for me. This might have been something that I might not have thought about.

But just by getting other thoughts and opinions means that you open yourself up to this whole new world and actually other opportunities that you might have missed.

Absolutely. And this leads me on absolutely seamlessly to.

The next thing I wanted to ask you about is around, what are some of the common mistakes you see product business owners making? So I think. I think we've just covered one off now, which is perhaps not getting as much input from other people as you could around your product.

What are some of the other things that you see that are fairly common? And then let's talk about, you know, how to address them.

Okay. So a lot of people tend to focus.

That's probably what we were just saying is too much on the products rather than the way that they're gonna stand out. So I work from these four pillars of success, and so they are, first of all, you need to be known like you need to have.

Before anyone can buy from you, they need to know who you are. And so this is what I call, like my connection pillar. And it's how you stand out in front of your perfect customers in the best possible way.

Then you need to be liked and trusted.

And I think this is where you need to nurture your customers and show them who you are, why you started your brand in the first place, why you're so passionate about it. And this can sometimes get a bit lost, I think. Like, I think we get so caught up into, this is my product. Buy my products. My product's on sale.

Here was my product again, buy my products.

And sometimes you might throw a few features about what the products might have on it or with it, and it doesn't go enough into, okay, well, this is what this product can do for you. This is how this product can make you feel. This is how this product can fit into your life.

This is how to use the product to get best results And I think more and more people are now searching for products with an authenticity coming back at them from people and showing, you know, this is, this is how this benefits you. We're not just looking for a sale or we're not just looking for a buy me, buy me situation.

We're looking for something that we can see somebody cares about and they are then showing us in the best possible way how we can use the products and why it is going to benefit us and our lives. Does that kind of help so far?

Yeah, that's really helpful.

Then I move on to sales because every business needs to make sales, but this is about increasing your average order.

And you need to have systems in place where every customer that comes to buy from you isn't just a one and done customer and they're going to buy and then they'll disappear and forget about you. And that's it. Because that's obviously not what we want. We need to make sure that we show any potential customer what we have on offer for them.

Any other products that can be linked together to give them a bigger, better, faster result or benefit and really build on, you know, okay, you might have come looking for this, but if you also use this alongside it, then this is also what we can do for you. And it's about really showing your customers that you're helping them. You're not here for a quick sale, you're here to go.

Actually, I want to make sure you get the best results from buying from my business. This is how we can do it for you. And then my fourth pillar is mindset.

Because I think so many of us go through tough times and struggle and we deal with it all on our own and we find that we don't actually talk enough about the way that we feel or the way that we are going through stuff in our own head. And the success of any business is 20% strategy and 80% mindset. Because we can just throw in the towel at any opportunity.

But we keep going, we keep understanding what's working, what's not, and why. Then we can keep tweaking and keep adjusting and keep believing in ourselves.

That's really helpful, thank you. And I totally agree with the mindset that because as we referenced in this conversation already, it's hard, isn't it? Running a business is hard.

Selling products, all of it is hard. And actually, even before the you get to the point of having something to sell, it's all quite hard.

So as well as the having the why which you spoke about afterwards, I agree you have to sort of one. Sort of prepare yourself for the fact that it's going to be hard, but also do what you can to get by.

So whether that's talking to other people, whether that's reaching out and asking for help, because there's a lot of help out there.

Oh, yeah. There are so many people there that want to give us help now. And everyone's coming at it from their own background, aren't we?

Like, we're all wanting to help other people because we've all gone through struggles and difficult situations ourselves.

But I think it's about being honest with yourself and saying, actually, can I do this on my own, or can I get there in a faster way, in a more fulfilled way? If I get somebody else to just show me another path, just show me something that they've done themselves.

But it takes us to get to a point of saying, help me, and feeling okay about that and not feeling forced into it.

Yeah, I think that makes sense. And because when you were sharing your own story, I hope you don't mind for coming back to. Back to it.

It sounds like you possibly could have got help sooner had you been ready to do that.

Of course. Yeah. And it is one thing that I don't really regret a lot in life.

I think, you know, we learn and I think we make mistakes, and as long as you learn from it and you don't make those mistakes again and again, then that's a good thing. But had I sat there and been open to help, then I wouldn't have felt as bad as I had done for two years.

I wouldn't have got myself into a mental state which wasn't good.

If I could just have gone, please, somebody help me, and finding somebody that understood where I was at and understood what it was that I wanted to achieve and didn't laugh at me when I was sitting there on the brink of bankruptcy and said, well, I want to achieve this. I want to do this. And I threw all my big goals and dreams at this guy.

And he was the first person I was ever open and honest with about what I wanted to achieve and said it to somebody else. And I thought, he's just gonna laugh in my face. I mean, I'm sitting here begging for help at this point.

Now I'm here, I'm there, and I'm saying, I want all these things. And he said, okay, well, let's. Let's see how we can take one step at a time and get you to that point.

And I honestly don't think without that I would be sat here now.

It sounds brilliant that he was so supportive and so. Yes. So supportive of your dreams.

Yeah. And it's kind of, I think when you.

I've worked with about eight different business mentors now myself, the different periods of my life and where I've been at and what I wanted to do. And some have really connected with me like he did and others haven't.

And I think it's all about trying to find somebody that really understands where you're at and where your mindset's at. And I think it's the same with absolutely anything.

I think if you can find a friend that can benefit you, then when you work together, you can have a great friendship, you can achieve great things together. You find a partner that connects with you, you can have a great relationship, you can achieve great things. And I think it's.

Anything in life is you just need to have the right people around you for that period or for a longer period who can help you to be your best self and be everything that you want to do.

Definitely. Let's move on if that's okay, Sam, and talk about my. One of my pedals question actually.

So I know that you believe there are free products every business should have in their range or portfolio, shall we say? Can you talk us through what those are and why?

Because I think this is something we haven't covered on the podcast before and I think this would be really interesting for people to think about.

Yeah. So I wholeheartedly believe that every business should have a Hero product.

And this, you can have more than one hero product if you want, but I think that for your product, business to stand out and connect with your customers in the best possible way, your Hero product is the thing that you want to be known for. Like the product that you want to. You want people to come running through your doors for or clicking online to come and get.

And yeah, like I say, you can have more than one of these if you sell a lot of products.

But I do honestly believe that if you know who your perfect customer is and why they're coming to buy from you, this Hero product should encapsulate you. Then I like to take one step back from that and have an entry level product. Now.

I want you to think of it like this is when a customer sees your Instagram or sees your website or walks past your shop or wherever they find you, there has to be a reason for them to take this first little step and it's just breaking the ice, if you like. And how you can start building trust and this whole no like trust factor comes into play.

And you can have an entry level product by holding events, holding workshops, offering samples, connecting with your community. You could have a free guide to how to use your hero product.

You can have whatever your hero product is, break it down into either a cheaper, a free, a more digestible version of that and say, okay, well this is how we can offer our services to you.

And this is giving your brand new customer an insight into who you are, what you do, why you do it, and believing in what you can offer them and seeing the customer service that runs alongside what you can offer them too. I like to. They don't do it often now. I actually have not been to a supermarket in so long.

They used to do on the corner, as you go up and down the aisles in the supermarket, they give you like little tasters. Didn't they remember those?

Yeah, I remember those.

Do they still do them?

I think very occasionally.

But those when they worked were amazing. And this is a perfect example of an entry level product. Right.

Because when they stood there and they were doing the job properly, they would ask you to come up. They should be there, all of the hero products behind them in the supermarket.

They are offering you to taste a little bit or try a little bit and then they should be giving you some information around that. They should be giving you some background behind it and what this product does or why they're selling it. And then there is this.

They should then be able to make you an irresistible offer to buying this product and taking it away with you. And this is an entry into a hero product. And this could be something that as you're walking around the supermarket, you had no intention to buy.

But because they caught your attention, because there was something about them that was friendly and open and they're the sort of person you wanted to buy from. You are more open to experiencing what it was they had on offer. Does that make sense?

Definitely. I mean some of I see this still happening a lot is farmers markets.

Yes. Yeah.

And it's great. And people do flock to it because I think some people just like something for free, especially my children.

If you try something and you like it, you might not always buy, but you might take away a leaflet or you might go away, look them up on social media or go to their website. But you know that brand having that little interaction. So I think even if someone doesn't buy straight away, you're on their radar.

And if especially like you say, if they give you, then Something to take away with them or allow you to scan, something to take you to their website or whatever it might be so that interaction doesn't just finish there and then, but it can be continued, which is a problem. I see a lot actually in like smaller markets around where I live here.

There's always markets going on everywhere and I like to visit them just to see and they might be offering you a taster or something, but there isn't anything for you to take away. There's nothing that's encouraging you to be reminded of that business. And I think it's super, super important that you do that.

So we've gone entry level product to the Hero product and then I've sort of split the next one into two and said, right, well, once someone's bought your Hero product, we now need to have product bundles and this is where we start introducing customers to other products that you can offer them. So I would put your Hero products in the center of your product bundle because this is why people are gravitating to you.

And it's your option to upsell people and then include two other products or services that complement that main product that you're selling and to give your customers a bigger, better, faster benefit for shopping with you.

And this can be a great way to introduce customers to more stock that you have and another reason for them to come back and buy more products from you.

But also, like we were saying, another reason for you to increase your average order when they can see the value that they're buying more products from you and not just coming in for one product, they can walk away with three and get even better results.

And then we move on to the subscription products, which are, which I consider like the holy grail of product selling because it can help you remove any stickiness. Like they.

If somebody can sign up to a subscription and have your product sent to them on repeat, there isn't a process they have to go through to buy something from you. They don't have to enter any bank details or anything like that. It can be bought once and then they subscribe until they cancel the subscription.

And this means when you have people joining a subscription service, you have money arriving in your bank account every month and you know it's going to arrive every month and you don't have to sit there worrying about starting from zero and starting from scratch and how many more customers you need to come and buy from you and how are you going to do it and how are you going to get people to come back again.

So I do think even if you sell a product that people can't necessarily buy every month, you could look into working with other small businesses and seeing, okay, well how can you create a subscription box that gets released every month that focuses on a different area that your customer might struggle with and introduce them to other small businesses that relate to your customers too.

And I think then you're not only helping your customers, not only building trust with your customers, but you're also building a network of people around you that you can all help each other and work on future events and do other things together. And I think no matter where you sell from, we need a network to support us.

Thank you. That's really useful.

And I haven't spoke to anyone about this before, so I'm hoping that this will give everyone something to think about whether these products that you've mentioned are in the range and if not, how they might look to introduce them.

Yeah, so I mean, so what, we've got the bundles you mean or.

Yeah, well, everything. Even, even an entry level product. If I think back to the business that I, that I had, I wouldn't say I had an entry level product. However, even I'm.

Obviously I'm looking back, I don't have that business now, but I can already think of a few ways. Actually, no, I did because one of my products was a pack of four and actually I did selling the item singularly.

So I guess that would be an entry level product. And I think for a lot of.

People that sell online, it could be, it could be an E guide.

You could write a guide that people could download from your website and they enter their email address in so that then you have their email address and you can send them newsletters when you send them, but they can then get information about this product.

They can get, they can understand more about this product and everything that it can do for them and how they can get best results and how to get longevity out of it. And they're not just having to come in, buy a product and hope for the best.

I think we need to give customers as much value up front and as much knowledge up front as possible so that we can get their trust. Because we have all been burnt so often and bought things that haven't worked, things that haven't been good for us. We've wasted our time.

And people do have this sort of shield around them now when they go into trying something new from a new business.

Yeah. Thank you. And I think it's really.

Thank you for that clarification that the entry level product does not have to be a paid product as well, because I think some of us will be thinking, oh, but I don't know if I can come up with something, but the fact that it can be free and it could be a PDF download, for example, that's. That's really nice and actually really reassuring that it doesn't mean creating a whole new product from scratch.

No, no, not at all. I mean, your hero product or your product is your product.

I think it's just about looking at where your customer is, what your product is, and saying, right. How do we bridge the gap between the two? How do we give our customers either a little taste or more information or insights?

And it could even be a checklist. It could be, I don't know if you're selling makeup as to skin types that the makeup works best on.

It's, it's just about understanding exactly where your customer is right now and saying, okay, well, how can I provide help and value to you? And that could be even before they part with any money.

I mean, even events, whether they're in person or virtual, workshops, in person or virtual, these are all designed to build trust, give knowledge, and ultimately build on the value that customers are getting so you can answer their questions and help them get over any speed bumps that might prevent them from buying from you.

I think that's a really good, I think adding value is a really good way of looking at it. And I'm just thinking from experience.

I, I was looking on a makeup site recently and I really like that on all of the pages they had a YouTube tutorial showing you how to use the product.

Yeah.

It's such a small thing, but I think that that is a small thing that makes a really big difference as a customer because you go, oh, I see how you do that. Oh, I can see how it brightens her skin or whatever it is.

That is what I would say is an entry level product there. Because you, although I'm classing them as products, I mean, a product in this instance could be anything to help your customers get more from you.

And get, yeah, like you say, like to say, oh, actually if I'd gone into that shop and. Or clicked on the website and just seen the makeup, you wouldn't have got the full impact of why it could have helped you.

And actually you might not have bought because you wouldn't have had all that information beforehand.

Yeah. And also, I know for me, something that puts me off sometimes buying things is thinking, well, I don't know how to Use this.

Having a video that shows you how to do it, something, you know, put myself in the customer shoes.

That barrier to purchase for me would be, I don't know how I would use this product, but to see a video explaining how to use it then gives you the confidence, oh, actually I probably could do this. Then that barrier is gone and then you're more likely to make a purchase.

So I love this so much that I think thinking about how you can add value and also potentially get customers over any hurdles they might have about buying from you is just so valuable.

Yeah, yeah, definitely. And it falls into my. So I have these like for them, seven steps to create an irresistible offer.

And it is something that I say to anyone that I work with.

Like whenever you go to sell anything, I want you to make sure that you have all seven of these steps ticked off so you know that you're giving your customer or every bit of information that they need. And the first one is promise. Make a promise to your customer to say, this is what this product is going to do for you. The next is the process.

And like it can be in a video, it can be written, but it's how do your customers have to use this product to get the best results, to get the promise that you are promising them? Then we've got price. You need to be upfront and open with your pricing and make sure it's clear and it's visible.

I went into a shop the other day and all the prices were hidden in random places and it really put me off.

But also to be pricing yourself and not pricing based on being scared about being too expensive or pricing yourself because you think, oh, they might be able to buy it cheaper on I'll say Amazon because I know you work with Amazon, but if you are working elsewhere, you need to make sure your price based on your value. Then we want you to value act.

We want you to give your customers something else that they can walk away from and say, you know what, this has been exceptional value. Whether that be a guide, whether that be something that might help them later on down the line once they've been using your product for a while.

If I always use the example of if you sell like high end, like shirts or something, well, could you work with a customer, a small business that has a dry cleaning service or a tailor service, like, how else can you have a voucher for them? How can you help your customer and foresee any other problems that they might have further down the line? Then we want risk reversal.

We want to be Upfront and honest again, with guarantees, warranties, anything that can take away any element of risk from your customer and show you, show them just how, how much you know your product will deliver the promise that you're promising them. Then we want to add some scarcity and urgency and we want to, in an ethical way.

We don't want to say you've only got one product left when you've got 100 sat in your, in your cupboard. But we want to say if something is limited, make people aware that it's limited.

If it's only aware for a certain amount of time, say it's only available for a certain amount of time.

We want customers to act now and give them a reason to act now rather than possibly act in a month or two's time or never, because they might have forgotten about you. And then we tie it all up with storytelling. And this is where we include your personal story.

We include reviews, testimonials, and give your customers insights into how other people have used your products and the results that they've got. And use customer generated content as well, so they can physically see other people using your products as well, which gives them more trust in you.

That's brilliant. Thank you. And thank you so much, Sam, for all that you shared. I've got one final question. I'm going to take all the advice from you I can today.

So before we finish, I would love to know, what is your number one piece of advice for product business owners.

To ask for help sooner rather than later? I. Yeah, if I had asked for help sooner, I would have achieved a business that I wanted sooner.

If I'd asked for help sooner, I wouldn't have gone through the stress and the worry and the anxiety that I put myself through.

And if you are somebody that is currently stuck or if you're currently finding it difficult to get the results that you're looking for from your business, I implore you to please find somebody that can give you some advice and to give you a stepping stone through it that can say, you know what, it doesn't have to be bad and negative. You can find ways through it.

If you're open to looking at your business through a different lens and understanding that there might be ways in which you feel slightly uncomfortable, but the end result be one that you're much happier with.

That's brilliant. Thank you so much, Sam.

That's okay. That's my pleasure.

Thank you so much for listening right to the end of this episode.

Do remember that you can get the Fullback catalogue and lots of free resources on my website vickyweinberg.com Please do remember to rate and review this episode if you've enjoyed it, and also share it it with a friend who you think might find it useful. Thank you again and see you next week.