Start Reading Minds

A Product Launch Strategy That Actually Makes Sense

Would it surprise you to know that after a proper evaluation, most companies should actually be selling a different product.  Many companies today have great foot traffic or eyeballs on their site, yet they just don’t know that their current customers or viewers are actually wishing or hoping that you were offering something else, or additional products.

(0:00 – 0:33)
When I was talking about, you need to be in the perpetual pursuit of what product you’re going to come out with next, what industry you’re going to go into next. I was trying to get people to think a little bit like Jack Welch from GE, who, when he took over for GE, they had two revenue streams doing a market cap around two to 4 billion. He left them with 14 revenue streams with a market cap of 40 billion in about a decade to a decade and a half.

(0:34 – 0:53)
So, trying to get a little mind shift with everybody listening here to think about that. I could just picture, I could picture people saying, well, I have no idea what product I should come out with next. I have no idea what other industry my talent or skill set would work well in.

(0:53 – 1:29)
I was trying to come up with what should I cover? And I think I’m going to title this reading your customers’ minds. How cool would it be? Would it be incredible if you actually had a crystal ball, and you could read the minds of your clients and your customers? How cool would it be if you knew exactly what your customers wanted from you next? Would that not be awesome? Well, the reality is you do have that crystal ball. There is mechanism tools out there that can help you predict what your clients want from you.

(1:29 – 1:46)
So, I’ve actually taught this principle a number of times and I’m going to use the same example I’ve used. Matter of fact, I use this exact same example in October in Dubai. I was asked to come out and present to the EO and the Alternative Investment Division of the government of Dubai.

(1:47 – 2:09)
In my talk out there is for all the business owners in the room, some of them flew in from South Africa, from Saudi Arabia. There was a guy there on the board of Subway. I taught the principle about how do you discern or qualify exactly what product your company should come out with next.

(2:09 – 2:29)
Believe it or not, there is a tool called the Google AdWords Keyword Planner. I’m going to repeat that. It’s a free tool from Google called the Google AdWords Keyword Planner that helps you literally read your clients’ minds.

(2:30 – 2:43)
I’ll explain how this work by a story that happened about a year ago. I was in a mastermind group with a group of, I think, 18 to 20 people. We were in Carlsbad, California.

(2:43 – 3:00)
We were sitting in a circle late at night and I remember kind of talking to these folks and we got to a guy named Tim. And I said, Tim was shaking. I said, what industry are you in and what’s your current business challenge? And he says, I am in bike parts manufacturing.

(3:00 – 3:11)
As a matter of fact, my company is going to be portrayed on the show how it’s made this summer. And he was all excited about it. And I said, that’s awesome.

(3:11 – 3:25)
Congratulations. What is your current business challenge? And he said, that is simple. For six months, we’ve had board meeting after board meeting after board meeting and we cannot figure out what we should manufacture or sell next.

(3:25 – 3:38)
What should we add to our website or catalogs? We are kind of stumped. And I said, really? Well, let me have a crack at this. I said, what is your current number one selling product? And he said, bike helmets.

(3:38 – 3:50)
I said, can you give me a minute? And I lifted up my laptop. I went to the Google AdWords keyword planner, which is saved and bookmarked on my website. I typed in bike helmets.

(3:51 – 4:14)
It takes about 15 seconds to run. And Google printed out for me or created a PDF for me of how many people.