I've noticed a recent pattern among my customers (and my customers' customers). A lot of creators are reporting that sales of their existing products have felt "slow" to start the year.
I've felt it in my own digital products—at this point, my courses and CreatorHQ are almost exclusively sold through various sequences and automations, but sales on those products have slowed down for me too.
There's a certain panic that comes with seeing any number in a spreadsheet that you care about trend the wrong direction. It's easy to extrapolate and begin to catastrophize.
Is this it? Is it all going to zero?
When I follow that path of thinking, it's like my whole body clenches and my field of vision narrows. I move into resource-protection mode, thinking about how to protect myself and the business from further deterioration. My instinct is to cut costs and free up operating capital rather than invest in the team or in projects for future growth.
It's a defensive posture. Sort of a "shelter in place" way of operating the business, simply trying to maintain my current footing.
But this doesn't work.
It might buy a little more time, but time to do what? If I've cut costs, I'm not investing in new projects or growth. The hope, I suppose, is that it buys enough time for the world to return to the way it was before the down months.
How likely is that to actually happen?
It's been a weird year. The economic vibes feel much more negative than what economic performance reflects (great podcast on this). Even as the market hit new highs this week, people can't seem to shake a feeling of uncertainty about the future—and that's putting people into the defensive posture I was just describing.
So what do you do about it?
Different World, Different You
As the old adage goes, "Every system is perfectly designed to get the result that it gets." Your business is a system, but it's connected to the world around it. Even if your business hasn't changed, the world has. Therefore, your results have likely changed. If you're unhappy with those results, you need to adapt your system to this new world!
How do you know what you need to change about your business to stem the tide and start getting things on the right track again?
It's time to experiment.
Fight Uncertainty With Certainty
My hypothesis is that, in a more uncertain world, customers' tolerance for product uncertainty has declined. There's always a risk with making a purchase—the customer typically pays up front (taking on all the risk) and then waits for the outcome or solution they paid for.
There's a spectrum here. Products feel less risky when I'm buying a pair of sneakers at a cash register, more risky when I'm buying an informational product dependent on my ability to learn, engage, and put that information into practice.
Everything feels riskier when we distrust the world around us. So trust in YOU as the creator has never been more important.
I've steeped myself in the research on trust at this point, and here's the simplest way to think about it: when you're asking someone to act (or transact), you're asking them to take a risk. In return, you're promising an outcome they'll like. If we trust your promise enough to act, we'll then assess whether you keep it. If yes, trust in you increases (a little). If no, trust in you decreases (a lot).
This partially explains why we earn so much trust from our audiences—we make a LOT of promises. Not giant promises, but micro-promises: I publish a newsletter every Sunday. I publish a podcast every Tuesday. If someone had been following me since I started this in 2017, that's about 650 promises made and kept. That doesn't even include every piece of social content that starts with a hook (which is also a micro promise about what you'll get from consuming that piece).
Your products also make promises, but the stakes are higher (we tend to value the cost of something in cash more than the cost of our attention). Higher stakes mean a higher threshold of trust required to act.
The sweet spot is a promise that is:
- Clear—We understand what you're promising.
- Compelling—We want what you're promising.
- Honest—You're being truthful about what you're promising.
- Accurate—You're not overstating what you're promising.
Our culture has overindexed on clear and compelling promises at the expense of honest and accurate promises (think: clickbait titles).
Promises that aren't clear or compelling won't convince anyone to act. What exactly are you promising me? Why should I care?
Promises that aren't honest or accurate will erode the trust we have in you. Is that REALLY what you'll give me? You didn't deliver on that promise.
Making More Clear Promises
If you suspect that people aren't quite grasping what you're offering, you need to make your language more concrete. Most solutions tend to focus on health, wealth, relationships, or happiness—which one are you addressing? How specifically can you speak to it?
"Double your income" is a more clear promise than "grow your income." And "lose 10 lbs in 60 days" is more clear than "lose weight."
Specificity brings clarity.
Making More Compelling Promises
If people get it but don't seem to care, your promise isn't very compelling. What makes your solution better than the status quo? What makes it better than competitors?
Find their itch and promise to scratch it. You want to make the biggest promise you can while still being honest and accurate.
Making More Honest Promises
This is usually an integrity thing more than anything else. You don't want to lie or mislead (that includes deliberate omission). If people are drawing the wrong conclusions, you're at least partially at fault.
When in doubt, look at your own track record. Look at your customer success stories. What's the biggest-but-still-honest version of what you're promising to deliver, based on past results?
Making More Accurate Promises
We've always been told to underpromise and overdeliver. But marketing is powerful magic, and overpromising is a great way to get people to act.
There's just one problem: it's short-sighted.
An overstated promise may get the sale, but it burns the relationship in the process. If you want long-term relationships with your customers (and anyone who speaks to your customers) then you should care about the accuracy of your promises.
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At the end of the day, your promises become more clear, compelling, honest, and accurate when attached to evidence. Using case studies and cataloging customer success stories makes your promises feel less risky and the outcomes more certain. I've long admired the way Jeremy Enns showcases his client results.
Offering a money-back guarantee is a great way to bolster your honesty and make your promises more compelling. You're shifting the risk from the customer to YOU.
But what if the outcome still depends on effort and input by the customer? How can you guarantee results then?
I'm seeing more and more creators who used to be totally hands-off in selling courses return to a more hands-on approach, moving from do-it-yourself to done-with-you or done-for-you. If being involved makes success more likely, then your promises will be stronger. And, in cases where customers get direct access and support from YOU, they're likely to ascribe a higher value (and pay a higher price).
When your customers' budgets and fields of vision get tighter, you can't just sit back and hope things turn around. Instead of taking a defensive, hope-for-the-best stance, you need to go on the offensive. Change your approach, your messaging, your positioning, even the way you deliver value to your customers. Invest in exploring new options or finding people (team members or mentors) who can help. Reduce the uncertainty in your offers and deliver on your promises.
Scratch your customers bigger itches. Find the parts of your offer that are closer to a must-have than a nice-to-have. Focus, experiment, and iterate until your system begins to reflect the results you were looking for.
Business is survival of the fittest. When the environment around you changes, you have to evolve to survive.
