(2014-02-13) Hoy My Customers Don't Know They Have A Problem

Amy Hoy: My customers don't know they have a problem… if you have to change worldviews — and this woman sounds like a hot mess, really — then you need to lure them in with stuff they know they want, and then go “but really, if you have xyz problem, you ought to consider this other thing instead…”

You know, pilling the dog. Wrap that unappetizing pill in tasty, tasty bacon

You shouldn’t always strive to change a person’s worldview. In fact, if your product’s success depends on everybody changing their deep-seated beliefs… you’re probably screwed. (customer discovery, mindset, hero's journey)

But it can’t hurt if you help them with an immediate issue and some day they realize “I can’t keep doing things like this” and they then start looking for something to help them move forward and look, hey, at that blog they’ve been reading forever…

You can pill the dog and lead them to discover it themselves. But be careful with expectations. I’d put this approach in the “advanced techniques: not for the weak of heart” category.

the ebomb you wrote MIGHT change worldviews. Somebody might go there looking for info cuz they’re desperate not to be scammed… and at the end you turn a little light on that suggests maybe there’s a better way.

It can be a side effect. Deliberately setting out to do it — while selling a product — is probably not going to get you great results. You don’t want to sell to somebody who disagrees with you on a deep level!

In short: people don’t change… …until their life sucks. That’s the dirty truth of the Fuck This Moment (FTM).

In your biz, you can work a Be There When They Hit a Fuck This Moment strategy. But if that’s your only strategy for acquiring customers, well, there’s little you can do to drum up sales when you want to, because you can’t force somebody else’s FTM. Epiphanies can’t be forced.

if you play your cards right, if you write to reach people using their existing pains, and each time you lift up the curtain a little bit more, you can help people over the hump… and help them see, bit by bit, that their suffering is caused by their worldview, and they can change it.

It’s still a tough row to hoe. Far easier to serve people who are already in the process of changing, already in motion.