Stop Daydreaming About the "Magic Product": Here's How to Actually Sell It

Hello and welcome to the show. The usual apologies. Tonight is a late night recording. So the noises that you hear in the background, Yeah, those are cars and termites. Termites, crickets, you know, whatever it is that they're called. So now let's head straight to the question for today. Yeah, good news for those of you who are tired of me telling you what is not important in your business and what you should not be paying attention to.

We are coming to the end of the the questions where were where. I am addressing people who have limited business experience and trying to give them practical guidance for first time entrepreneurs. Now I started off this whole series by saying a couple of things about five or six things that I think first time entrepreneurs need to pay attention to. And the first one was your business name is not as important as you think.

So don't waste too much time on your business name. If this is your first time of listening to the show and that sounds counterintuitive to you, then skip back. That should be like 4 episodes and you will get the details on that. You'll get the scoop. From there, we moved into tackling why branding is not as important as you think and why you shouldn't waste much time on branding. So for those of you brand and PR aficionados who are offended,

then skip back. That will be three episodes and you will get caught up to speed on the nuanced idea that I was trying to express there. Then I also had advice for the newbies that your business idea is not as important as you think, so you shouldn't spend so much time trying to hide your idea or trying to protect it. For those of you who have legal sensibilities, you know you went to law school, you're a lawyer, or you're an IP professional,

intellectual property protection professional. Then skip back one episode to yesterday's episode and you will get caught up to date on the tips, tricks, advice, or the business philosophy that I had for newbies in this space who are wondering, I have the greatest idea in the world. I don't want anybody to steal the idea. How do I protect it? So I went into the whole thing about how the idea itself is not the important thing, it's the execution of the idea.

And what you should even be trying to do, first of all, is to validate the idea to show that there is some market demand. People do find it useful. People actually are willing to spend money behind this thing before you start investing money behind IP protection. So for those of you who like looking at stuff from legal and you'll find yesterday's episode interesting. So today. Oh yeah. So today what we're looking at is the the idea that there's no business idea that is so great that it is going to sell itself.

That's what we're tackling today. And then tomorrow what we're going to look at how business is a team sport, because I want the newbies to know that no matter the kind of business that you want to build, well, that's a cottage kind of business. You know, selling a carrier at the back of your house with your kids or you being a supplier of catfish to market women, or you starting a fintech firm or you trying to start a cement factory or whatever, or whatever level it is that you want to play at.

We have to realize that business is a team sport. And then we have to anticipate for that. We have to plan for that. So the whole thing of the solo, self-made businessman, self-made tycoon, woman, self-made this solo that, excuse me, nothing is just a myth. It doesn't exist. It makes for very good PR and it makes for very good autobiographies and stuff like that, but it's not real. There's no solo anybody. There's no self-made anybody.

Business is always, I'm a team sport. You might be the captain. That's the reason why you're getting all the press. Still doesn't change the fact that you have a team behind you. So let's head straight into the matter for today. And that is there is no business idea that is so great that it's going to sell itself. Now, the reason why I'm tackling this is because there's this fallacy that is out there that there's some business ideas and some businesses that are so great that they sell themselves.

So all you have to do is very little work. All you have to do is just slot yourself into position and start collecting the profits. And there are people who believe that this sort of thing exists, and there are people who want to work smart and not want to work hard and are constantly looking for these sorts of things that this thing will practically sell itself. All I have to do is wake up and be in position, and then I'll start counting my money.

So for some people, that is the Holy Grail of business. Like, if I can find this thing, I'd be set for life. But is it a pipe dream? That's the kind of question that I want us to look at today. Now, one popular example that people give about this whole thing of products that practically sell themselves is this whole thing of the iPhone. So currently we're at iPhone. OK, let me not betray my lack of pop culture awareness.

I was going to say currently what iPhone 13 or 14, but I don't know what to say categorically that we're 13 or 14. And then somebody there is thinking, Oh my God, this guy is stuck in the stone ages. We're currently at 18 or 19. So anyway, I don't know what the current iteration is of the iPhone, but one reason why people speak of the iPhone as this sort of product is obviously the iPhone and the Mac products are behind the huge success that has been Apple.

And then whenever they release a new edition, so let's say we're currently at 16 or 17, when they release 18 or 19 or 20 or 20, whatever, the, it's going to be the same. There's going to be an announcement, there's going to be the anticipation, there's going to be the hype. And then people are going to line outside stores in America so that they can be one of the first to get them. And in Nigeria, the phones are going to come in at much more than market value.

You know, it's going to be all that crazy. And so people look at it as that is one example of this is a product that sells itself. So yes, Steve Jobs, iPhone, Mac products, they're so beautiful. They're so intuitive that they sell themselves. But is that really the truth? For those of you who have already read the Fellow's autobiography? Well, I haven't read it. Or did he write an autobiography? Well, anyway, there are books dedicated to him anyway.

So for those of you who have read the book, the books, you'll be able to testify to this. I've seen some snippets of the movie. I haven't even watched the movie from beginning to the end. That's the one with what's this dude, this guy that married Madonna, I think, and then later on married Mia Kunis. What's his name? Ashton Kutcher. Ashton Kutcher, I think, yes. OK. No, he wasn't married to Madonna. He was married to Bruce Willis's wife.

What's her name? So GI Jane, she acted GI Jane, Bruce Willis, wife. And I can't remember, but yes, I'm the one that. So Ashton Kutcher played Jobs, although I heard that there's another Jobs movie out there, so maybe I'll watch that one. So for those of you who have watched the movies or read the books, you see that. Yeah, they started off humble beginnings. You had founders that were fiddling with an idea and they started selling motherboards first.

So motherboards are, How do I explain it? OK, so computer, that's the hardware. That's the thing that you see on the outside. If you crack it open and you look on the inside, you're going to find motherboards. That is that green little thing that is soldered and welded and the microprocessors are attached to it. And all the Gisburn, everything that all the secretary that is needed to to make it work is attached to it.

So that's the motherboard. So they started off selling motherboards or something like motherboards. Now eventually they were able to cobble together a computer and then they had to engage in fundraising rounds to start a company. And then since Jobs was all about this whole thing of products looking nice and sleek and everything, they had to hire great design and product development teams, and they also had to hire great public relations and advertising firms.

That's the reason why that advertisement, the Super Bowl one, I can't remember what year anyway, Was it 1983 or something? But only the the the ad, the 1984 ad, some, as people like to call it, was based on was based on what's this guy's name? George Orwell. Have you Animal Farm. Yeah. George Orwell. Yeah. So he wrote a book, 1984. It's supposed to be some dystopian science fiction. And so the Apple had this great idea for an advertisement.

You can check on YouTube, you know, be there, just type in Apple 1984. You see the, the advert. I mean, now the advert doesn't look like it's great, but back then it, it was, was a brilliant idea. When, when did it run 1983? OK, well, I was a baby then anyway. I didn't see it myself. But The thing is, mom seen later on, that's my own mom later on would become a public relations professional and a marketing exec. So these are some of the things that I would hear about as a little child, you know, Mumsy Popsy talking about some things like that.

So yeah, apparently this was a really cool advertisement at the time. Anyway, I digress. So they had to high grade public relations people, they had to hire advertising firms. And for those of you who have been watching all the releases of the product, you see that there's great showmanship that is involved in the product launches. So there's that whole thing of, you know, the whole the convention, Steve Job comes out,

he's looking casual, but clearly he's polished. It's a solid presentation, you know, blah, blah, blah, and all these things. Now, for those of you who have read the books and for those of you who have watched the movies, I want you guys to think about it and tell me which part of this story looks like or which part of this story sounds like. The product sold itself. It did not. They started selling motherboards. They raised some valley.

They raised some money. Then eventually they were able to set up a computer, but then they had to go and start toasting people to raise funds to start a company. Then they use that money to hire great design people and product development people to design what they thought was the perfect product. Then they had to hire great public relations and advertising firms. Why did they do that? They did that because they were trying to sell the thing and they did that expensive advertising campaign on the Super Bowl.

And then they go through all this trouble of all this showmanship whenever they're about to launch. Steve Job comes up, guys looking casual, looking relaxed. There's the lights, there's the music, you know, there's the everything, the whole Polish presentation and, you know, there's press packets and everything like that. So where in all this thing does it sound like the product is selling itself? So it really makes me like, it blows my mind every time I hear somebody say this whole thing or oh, the iPhone sells itself.

Like which selling itself. It's not selling itself never has sold itself. You know, Steve Jobs is obviously selling the damn thing. And if he's not selling it, he's getting people who know how to help him sell the damn thing. So the iPhone does not sell itself. So if your idea is that there's going to be a product that is going to be the Holy Grail, I'll make you money and the iPhone is your model, then get ready for two decades of product development, two decades of fundraising, 2 decades of stakeholder management because the stakeholder management involved, because you know, once you collect investors money and they're sitting on your board,

investors now feel like they can tell you don't do this, don't do this, let's do this. So stakeholder management doing that for two decades. Then there's inventory management because you're producing a physical product. You have to anticipate demand, Make enough, but don't make too many. Also, don't make too small because if you make too small and there's too much demand, you know there's a problem. Then there's also supply chain management because you're manufacturing some of these things overseas right now.

I've been hearing, I don't know how true that is that iPhones are actually manufactured in China, But you know, I don't pay attention to that kind of tech news, so I don't know for sure. So the supply chain management, how, how quickly are the Chinese people making this thing? How quickly can they get them over to the US? And by the time we launch, are we going to be able to supply enough of them to those guys in Nigeria, you know, who love our iPhones?

So I'm going to buy the iPhones and then all these things. So really if you think there's a product that sells itself and you think all the iPhone is the ideal thing that sells itself, I'm going to model myself after iPhone. Then this is the amount of work that you have to put up with for two decades or more to get this thing. So look, The thing is, if you all these Holy Grail businesses, these products that sell themselves, blah, blah, blah,

blah, blah, just go and check. You don't even have to read the whole book or watch the whole film. You will find a similar back story. So there's nothing that sells themselves. Some people talk about how drugs are easy to sell themselves because they're addictive. And no, even drugs don't sell themselves because first of all, when somebody comes out with a new drug, it doesn't matter whether it's cocaine or whether it's all these synthetic drugs that are coming out now in the UK.

Oh, by the way, I hear that in Abuja and Nigeria, the synthetics are already here, synthetic drugs. So there's product development and trials, product development and trials. It costs money. You have to pay science boys and science girls, you know, to do their stuff and come up with the correct mixture of, you know, I'm not in that world, so I have no idea. But you have to pay people to mix this kind of stuff. It's going to require an initial investment.

So you have to raise money by yourself or raise money from other people. And of course, these are illegal activities. So you have to keep things kind of thing. You have to keep things secret. You have to keep it on the download. While you're keeping things on the download. You have to figure out distribution channels because because if you come out with the perfect magic drug today, it doesn't mean you're going to blow and make a lot of money.

So excuse me, you just have to figure out the right distribution channel like any drug, sorry, like any product or service. So that's the reason why these drug peoples are always have connects with party promoters and venue promoters and things like that. And I hear that in Abuja for instance, Abuja is where I live, capital of Nigeria. I hear that, you know, that's how these things make the rounds. So parties, people are trying out new pills, people are trying out new concoctions, things like that.

So these people that are involved in making these things, you know, they are, like I said, they're trying to hook up distribution, distribution channels as well. So just like any other business person, legit or otherwise, he's trying to see what are the avenues that I can put my product or service in that people will see and people will try out. It's the same thing. So that's where this unholy alliance between drug dealers and party promoters and venue promoters, that's where the whole thing comes up.

Then they have to do lots of networking because they have to get into the right circles to find the right ideal customer profile. That's the person that is going to the ideal group of people that are going to buy these things. That's the reason why, for instance, you don't see drug dealers outside your local church because you know folks that go to church, you know student union people. No, not student union, what's called SU scripture union.

So scripture union people, arguably that is not the right target audience. And so that's why do not come and flirt your churches. And so you find the right ICP. Then you don't have to give them free samples, the puppy dog clothes or the trial clothes, you know, you give some, give somebody something small, let them taste, let them sample. If they like it, they will come back. And then you make your profit by maximizing lifetime customer value.

So that's the scope, that's how this thing works. So we give them a small sample, they like it, they come back and they pay. And over the course of, I don't know, however, months before the person becomes clean and sober or whatever it is, that's where you make your money. You make your money on the back end. Then there's also manufacturing and packaging hassles because you have to figure out market penetration problems because even for people that do illicit drugs or illegal drugs or whatever, by the time you're coming up with your own mixture,

there's already someone who occupies market share. There's someone that is there. I mean, the market is never vacant. So even when it comes to drugs that are addictive and in theory should sell themselves, Hope you guys can see that the drug, all the new fancy stuff, the designer drugs so excuse me, that are coming in from Europe and America, they don't sell themselves. They make their way to the Nigerian market. And then there are people who have to take this figure out distribution channels, network,

get into the party scene, the club scene, hook up with promoters, hook up with venues, figure out who are the people that we should be selling this thing to. Is it middle class people? Is it upper class people? Is it children or politicians? Is it whatever? They have to figure it out and then they have to lose some money by giving out free samples just to get people hooked on this thing and on and on and on and on and on.

So even something like this that is highly addictive, The thing is not selling itself. So anyway, don't mind me, I've gone on this 20 minute rant. But what I'm trying to say is if you have very little experience in business, you're about to jump in. Stop looking for that business idea that will allow you to sit back and relax. It doesn't exist. Now let me tell you something in theory, if you do find one that exists, like if you enter this business, all you have to do is kick back, relax, maybe can start counting your money.

Everybody and their uncle and their auntie and their younger brother and their children will copy you because it is such a great product or great service or a great idea. When everybody starts copying you, market pressure is going to force you to try and distinguish yourself from the competition. Because if everybody is doing it, then really why should I come and buy the stuff from you? So eventually you will have to engage in marketing, you have to engage in selling, you have to engage in branding, you have to engage in promotional activities.

You'll have to engage in something to set yourself apart from the crowd. So in theory, even if you are that lucky SOB that finds that kind of thing, that once you enter, you just sit back, your advantage will not last for long because your boys are watching you, your girls are watching you. And is it anything is a cash cow. Of course they will enter market pressure. Eventually you will have to sell. So it's no such thing.

However, for the sake of argument, what is the closest thing that you can get to to having a product that sells itself? In my own opinion, First off, you have to come with a good idea. We've done episodes on that in the past. Look at your hobbies or your interests, try and look for gaps in the market, problems in the ecosystem, you know, those sorts of things. Get a good idea, Then you have to create an MVP. An MVP is a minimum viable product is the smallest version of your idea that can work, that somebody can see, can taste, can touch, can smell, can criticize,

can say yes, can buy, can reject, can abuse, can criticize, but something shy that people can have an opinion on. Then you validate the idea. Once you have created that thing, you try and sell it, or you shall customer service or give free samples and hear what people have to say. The thing is, do anything to get this MVP into people's hands so you can see if there's demand. They look for feedback. Whatever feedback they use, take it and use it to make your bro,

your product, or your service better. If there's a demand, then continue to sell to people that you think are your ideal audience. See how much traction you can get. When you get traction, make sure you're trying to bring in repeat business. Make sure you're trying to bring in referrals because that's the goal of traditional sales theory. And that is how businesses are propagated. That's how businesses are continued. It's from people coming back to buy again or telling their friends, their family members,

their associates, maybe even their enemies, telling them to come and buy from you. That's how your business is going going to grow. Then once you get that traction, see how you can scale. If you're not getting any traction, if you can't validate the idea, that's a topic for another episode. But really this, that is the, you know what? There's no such thing as a product that sells itself. This is level of work that that goes into it.

So you don't have to sell, you have to push, you have to promote this thing or whatever it is. If you feel like you don't have a stomach for that kind of thing, then partner with someone else who can, which is the reason why back to this job thing, it is actually Wozniak and Jobs. Wozniak idea guy, technical guy, the real creator of the Mac and the iPhone and the everything. And then Jobs, who is the sales guy, the promotional guy, the one who knows how to talk to distributors, talk to investors and blah, blah, blah.

So this is one of the many templates that exist when it comes for growing a business. But there are some other perspectives, some other products and services that for the sake of argument, let's say they come close to selling themselves because of a combination of different factors. So let's look at some of them. Now, there's some things that have high demand and low barriers to entry. These are necessities. So water, high demand, low barriers to entry, electricity,

high demand. Well, actually for electricity, the barriers to entry are quite high, at least in Nigeria because this huge capital outlay that is required. And then also household items, you know, these are things that people need. And the buying process is simple. So in theory, yeah, you can get into the water business. It's something that sells itself, you know, in theory, but it's not that simple. Then you should be trying to get viral marketing on the Internet or word of mouth that is also you trying to strive for the product or the service selling itself if you're going to achieve some virality.

Sorry about that. Then what else? Yeah, freemium. Freemium apps. The idea behind freemium is this. You have your service typically delivered over an app. You release the first thing for free. You guys more that they enjoy, as in just be enjoying it. But if you want to get more than you don't have to pay us. That is exactly what Spotify is doing right now. So Spotify you can enjoy, be enjoying, be flexing, be playing all the music.

But if you want to play dedicated playlists, then you have to pay us 900 naira every month. I think at the time of this recording, I think it's 900 naira every month, and some of you say 900, not expensive, you will pay. So that's the whole thing behind freemium. So in this case, you can see that I guess Spotify is kind of selling itself because the freemium thing is there. You'll be using it, you'll be enjoying the music, you enjoy the bedroom, you're having a good time, but you want to be able to play your exact playlist as you have decided.

It's not Spotify telling you which kind of music you should listen to. And you say there's only 900 Nair per month. Let me pay the 900. So that freemium, freemium apps, freemium services, that is kind of a product or service selling itself. There's also the spirit behind what people like to call product LED growth. PLG. That's a topic for a future episode. If I know someone who reached out to me, she listens to the podcast.

We haven't chatted in like 3, three, four months, but she's been doing some experiments in PLG with her own company. And I told her I look, I don't believe in PLG, but you're a practitioner. So I'd love to hear what you guys are working on. Let's see if this whole thing works and I'll make a podcast episode about it, but that's in the future. I'll get to it eventually. Then another class of things that kind of sell themselves,

subscription services, things that have recurring value. So for, for for convenience, people just want to automatically renew. So like DSTV, in fact, there's some people that just paid DSTV for what do I don't know about now? Because now I think the cheapest DSTV package at the date of this recording in Nigeria is I think it's like 9 K or so. I think it's nine. OK, nine K is not the cheapest, but the second to the last is 9

grand. So back in the day where I still live with mom, see when we're in Lagos, mom, she just thought, look, it's too much of A hassle. So she, she's like to just pay upfront pay the whole year. But like I said, that was like a decade ago, not now that the cheapest second to the last package is 9 K. So, but there are some people who say, you know what, instead of me paying for this thing every month, let me just, let me just pay the whole year.

After all the children are around most of the time, let me just pay. So you can see that this is almost the product or the service selling itself. So it's a subscription service. There's recurring revenue every month. Sha, people will pay and pay and pay and you do they will do promos around the UEFA World Cup and all these things to get more people to subscribe. So DSTV, cable TV, what else Internet purchase for those of you who are on Spectra net on all those things.

So subscription you have to pay every month. So this is almost the product or service selling itself because you don't have to chase people every day. But beyond these kind of things, you know, products that are high demand, household items, low priority entry, freemium apps and then subscription services. Beyond these things to say that there's a self selling product, you are not going to find it. But Please remember, take everything I'm saying with a pinch of wisdom.

I am not saying that you should go out and look for the hardest product or service to start with. No, Although sometimes looking for the hardest thing to start with might not be a bad way to go into business. Because think about it, if it's hard, not many people will do it. And if not many people will do it, you have a greater chance to stand out. And that is how I started my own public speaking and consulting journey.

I'm waiting. Photographer people know me for wedding photography. I have certain ideas about business. People say I'm good about sales and so excuse me and how to make the transition to start speaking and teaching. And so I had been blogging about it for a while, but I realized that podcasting is a good way to pass across information. And podcasting is hard and I know that most people are lazy. So I knew that if I started and I didn't give up, in a matter of time, I would be a lone voice when it comes to business education.

So today I have over 860 episodes by competition, including other sales trainers who are much more established. Some people even have 15 years experience in the business. I mean, people who have been doing this kind of training and consulting back when I was still doing wedding photography. A whole lot of those people have given up and have moved on to other things. But anyway, that's a topic for another day. But bottom line is sometimes picking the hardest thing might also be a good strategy.

And that's why I've stopped this whole podcasting thing because to be honest, I just need that look, podcasting is hard. People will start by the time they do this thing, 8-9 months, they'll say, whoa, man, this thing is too much stress after I'm not getting clients. And then they will stop. And after a couple of years, I would be the only man standing if I give it another five years. OK, well anyway, let me not let me not boast too much.

Well, let me not talk too much. Any who knows the future, but give it another, give it another couple of years, another five years. I probably will be a, a a lone voice when it comes to business education. Anyway, let me stop taking my own horn. So that's all for today pretty much. Connect with me on WhatsApp. The phone number is 08064662140. The country code is +234. Then connect with me on LinkedIn. My name is Tavish Mahadi, I'm the host of the show.

You can confirm the spelling of my name and e-mail address from the link. We're currently listening to this episode, so thank you very much for your time and attention. Sorry I went real lengthy. I just was trying to stress this whole thing that there's no product or service that sells itself. So for those of you who are newbies, you have limited business experience, you're looking for practical guidance for first time entrepreneurs.

My advice to you for today is stop looking for that. Stop looking for that golden goose. It doesn't exist. You won't come in and kick back and then collect your profits on anything. You have to learn how to sell it yourself or partner with someone who will sell it for you because there's no product or service that sells itself. So see you guys at the next recording.