THE APPROACH TO LAUNCHING A PRODUCT I NOW RECOMMEND completely removes ‘will they buy?’ uncertainty, if you do it right.

It creates positive cashflow almost from the outset.

And it's the fastest process to creating really high quality programs that the right people actually want to buy.

Because extensive client feedback is 'baked in' every step along the way.

It's piloting.

Piloting means you engage a small group of clients with a first version of your program.

The deal is, they get a discount and extra attention from you on the understanding that this is a first version, and it may have a (non-fatal) rough edge or two.

And their participation is conditional on providing feedback so you can improve your program before it goes on general release.

(If you want more depth on piloting, below is a video of a presentation I did for Peter Thomson’s private client group on this subject.

It explains how we piloted a brand new program to £26,150 (USD $34,000) in a couple of months off a £2,000 (USD $2600) initial ad spend, using the piloting methodology.

Tip: avoid a mistake I made once in the past.

Under no circumstances do I recommend you run a ‘free’ pilot.

People will accept a free offer all day long, some if only to be polite or supportive to you. 

The fact people accept a free product therefore tells you nothing about its viability.

You only really know you’re on target when you ask people to cough up real money, and they do.) 

A successful pilot establishes that you’re on the right track.

And it gives you vital feedback to improve your offering.

So let’s say you’ve run a successful, paid pilot...

How do you roll your program out to a wider audience?

This is where you need to be on your guard. 

Most of what is perceived as ‘marketing’ (actually, it’s promotion) achieves absolutely nothing at all.

These are the myriad activities I classify as the Meaningless Many. 

99.9% of social media activity falls into the Meaningless Many camp.

The fact that the top management of social media companies (in other words, focused, successful people) don’t use their own time-suck platforms themselves tells you everything you need to know.

The truth is that a handful of key sales and marketing activities can have a wildly disproportionate effect on your success.

I call these the Focused Few – more on these to come.

***

THE OCEAN CALM AS A MILLPOND AND SPARKLING BLUE OUTSIDE HIS OPEN WINDOW, Mike sat in his home office, with his dog in its usual spot.

It had been a month and he was about to make the scheduled follow-up call to his Paris prospect.

A couple of seagulls cawed in the distance as Mike’s wife shouted through from the other room.

Did he want a cup of tea?

Damn right he did.

This was an important call.

A slug of caffeine might do him good.

After half a cup down the hatch Mike felt fortified enough to pick up the phone and dial the number.

‘Sounds like a seagull?’ his contact said.

‘Didn’t realise you got them in London. Anyway – look, it’s good news – my colleague watched some of your videos. He loves it.

'We want to put it in for all 20,000 staff. Send us the agreement, and invoice.’ 

Mike placed the phone down gently, then clenched his fist.

‘YES!!!’  

‘I thought: “Holy shit! A £100,000 deal! This is it! I’ve done it!”  

‘I realised: not only will they buy this format, the work involved for me is so much less.

'This way, I can help far more of their people than I ever could even offer them one to one.

'I saw I could sell in volume now – at scale.

'And I now had a template for the big sales.

‘My wife hears me shout and walks in. “What are you so happy about?” she asks.

'I tell her the story of how this company who’d never even seen me train in the classroom have just asked me for a £100k deal based on one two-hour meeting a month ago, and a “Test Drive” of my content.

'She was dumbfounded. But not for long, because she quickly suggested dinner must be on me that evening!

‘Suddenly I realised – quick – send them the bloody contract, before they change their minds!’

But they didn’t change their minds.

‘I'm now on my second program with them.

'The contract is actually bigger this year.

'And also two other divisions of the company are now curious about the success.

'I'm going on to contract three or four now.

'So that company in itself I reckon by four, five years is a million pound (USD $1.3m) client on its own.

‘The best thing is: they’d never even met me before.

'They didn't know me.

'I just showed them the implications of carrying on the way they were going. And I gave them a free Test Drive.

'Imagine trying to do that the old way.

'You couldn’t.

'You can't go around as a trainer and consultant saying, “I'll come over to Paris for three days for you for free and you can find out if you like it or not.”

'What I was essentially giving them was like 10, 12, 14 days worth of training content to look at, while I was sitting at home drinking a glass of rose on my terrace.’

And there were many more deals, of varying sizes, to come in that first year.

When he checked in on his accounting software at year end, with that £100,000 sale making a big dent, Mike found he’d blown his £250,000 (USD £325,000) target for the year out of the water. 

And the travel?

Mike had ended up doing eight business trips that first year of his ‘product’ business, against his target of six.

But he wasn’t going to worry too much about that.

Click here to see the unexpected benefits Mike has got from productizing... and where you can get the information you need to begin the process for yourself (final page).