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What customers want

Many failed products are built on what the makers think people should want. Successful products deliver on what people actually want or need (if not both).

Meta’s virtual reality products are built around what they think people should want: an artificial metaverse that looks kind of childish and that enables experiences that no-one has asked for. They try to conquer the world by creating something entirely new in the hopes that people would want that.

On Monday, Apple has unveiled their take on headsets. They chose not to create something entirely new. They built an (arguably) better way to experience the things that people already know. At the core, their headset is a way superior display compared to any other display that we used before. On that display, we can do the things that we already do, browsing the web, watching movies, enjoying family photos or collaborating with colleagues; most of these things seem to work better than on traditional displays. Movies will be more immersive, screens for our work will feel bigger etc.

Instead of creating something entirely new, the Vision Pro looks like it is about doing the things that we already love to do with the apps we already love to use, but better. That’s literally their pitch: “So you can do the things you love in ways never before possible.”

Apple doesn’t make customers want something entirely new. It tries to sell customers on a better way to get what they already want.

Subtract and amplify

When a story doesn’t work, the default approach is to add more information. Explain it in greater detail. Come up with more reasons for why the approach you’re promoting is so obviously the right thing to do.

While lack of information was actually never the problem.

Quite the opposite: Your audience felt already overwhelmed or confused (and maybe both). It already was too much information so that they couldn’t figure out what’s the point, really.

Instead of adding to the confusion, great communicators ask: What’s the essence of the story? And how can I amplify that?

Subtracting the non-essential and amplifying the essential is how leaders light the path.

Jaws in Space – The shortest pitch ever?

The pitch for the original Alien movie is widely considered to be one of the best pitches ever made.

Legend has it that it was only 3 words long.

It could have been 3 hours long, explaining in great detail how the story works, detailing the dark mood, forecasting box office sales, introducing the creation team, diving into their track record, …

… and many more aspects that an advisor would recommend you mention in a pitch.

The creators chose to dismiss all of that. They saw two things that made all of it redundant information:

First, it was shortly after the mega success of Jaws which created a hype for the thriller genre.

Second, it was the dawn of science fiction, with Star Wars just having conquered the world and other films around the corner.

Hollywood wanted thrillers and it wanted science fiction. What it wanted even more was a thriller science fiction movie.

And that was all the Alien creators needed to know. Here’s their pitch:

“Jaws in Space”

These three words sparked the producers’ imagination: If we can make a film as thrilling as Jaws but located in Space, box office success would be a no-brainer. The future success felt so present for them, that it made them beg the creators to tell them more.

Now they wanted all the info.

And that’s the perfect moment to give the info. After your audience wants it, not before.

How can you create the urge for your audience to want the info before you give it to them?

The biggest confidence hack

The biggest confidence hack?

Find the words you truly believe in about the things you deeply believe in.

Lack of confidence mostly means lack of trust in one (or both) of these. If you don’t trust

  • in your words being the right words (in that moment and to that audience) or
  • in the thing being the right thing (in that moment and for that audience)
    that’s a big roadblock for showing up with confidence. Your body senses the insecurity and will surface it in your body language and tone of voice.

The body language hacks from the last workshop don’t really help, either. Acting in contradiction to what your body wants to do is hard, even for professional actors (which is why they don’t usually do it but have developed different strategies).

It’s a different game when you first build trust in your words and the things you make. Then, everything you’ll do to boost your confidence won’t be in contradiction with what your body wants to do, anymore, but in alignment.

The key is amplifying rather than correcting your body language.

Find the words you truly believe in about the things you deeply believe in. And then amplify what your body wants to do.

Effortlessness

Looking at masterful communicators, you could get the feeling that they have a natural talent for communication, some sort of unfair advantage to find the words that always seem to nail it.

Yet, the truth is that it’s neither unfair nor a talent they were born with.

What makes it appear unfair is their will to rigorously figure things out. To not settle with confusing language or unclear messaging but instead look for ever more compelling ways to tell their story.

What makes them appear as natural born talents is the fact that their communication feels so effortless. Yet, remember that effortlessness is usually the result of an immense effort. It’s rigorous preparation that lets you appear as though you didn’t have to prepare.

I’ve written the “Leaders Light the Path” manifesto as a reminder of what you can achieve if you are willing to put in that kind of an effort.

If you find it useful, please share it with a friend.

PS: Do you have an important story to tell? I’d love to hear it.

A no-brainer

If customers knew everything that you know, it would be a no-brainer for them to buy from you, right? They would queue up in an instant.

Why then don’t they?

What’s the missing piece? What do they not see?

More importantly: how can you make them see it?

The dishonesty of paid speaking

Something’s wrong in the professional speaking world and it’s paying to speak.

There’s a significant number of large scale events where many of the speakers in the lineup pay to speak on the big stage.

In and of itself, there’s nothing wrong with this. Businesses pay to get in front of people all the time. It’s basically an advertisement.

Like with other forms of hidden promotions, the problem is when it’s intransparent.

If you buy your speaking slot, say so. If you’re the organizer of such an event, say who paid to speak and who got paid by you to speak. If you’re sitting in the audience, demand transparency.

It’s a simple rule that applies to any kind of advertising.

Just be transparent!

Who is “us”?

This week, I’m asking one simple but important question each day for you to ponder (on your own or with your team):

When a customer reads your “about us” page, would they come to the conclusion that they are included in “us”?

Your marketing agency’s words

This week, I’m asking one simple but important question each day for you to ponder (on your own or with your team):

When you read out loud the words that your marketing agency came up with, how does it feel? How would you say it in your own words?

Spread the Word

Dr. Michael Gerharz

Dr. Michael Gerharz