Oversubscribed. Daniel Priestley

Oversubscribed - Daniel Priestley


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followed.

      The world has become a noisy marketplace full of vendors thrusting their products in front of people hundreds of times each day. It's had the effect of conditioning people to become numb to most forms of marketing. In a noisy market gimmicks don't work, hassling people doesn't work and interrupting peoples' day doesn't work.

      The one thing people will never grow tired of, however, is seeing someone they know, like and trust who appears out of the crowded sea of unknown faces. You must lay the foundations for people to get to know you, like you and trust you at scale.

      BE CONTENT‐BINGE‐READY

      The true test of whether your business is able to show up in a meaningful way is the ability for someone to binge on your online content for the full 7 hours, 11 interactions, and 4 locations. Imagine people who've only just heard of you and want to deep dive into everything they can about you. They use their phone to search for videos, podcasts, blogs, social media accounts and websites that can help them learn more.

      No business is exempt from this. Whether you sell physical products or intangible services your potential buyers are doing their research online. You need to create a journey for them to run deep with their desire to know more.

      If it's possible for a person to spend a day researching your business and finding content worth delving deeply into, you have the foundations in place to build a passionate customer. If, however, it's impossible for someone to gorge for even a couple of hours on your ideas or they can only find sales collateral, it will be very difficult to build an engaged group of people who care about what you're up to.

      The market consists of people who might buy your product. Your market are people who have been sufficiently 7‐11‐4–ed by you or your business brand. A business that is ready to scale is one that has enough digital assets freely available online that anyone who wants to go on a content binge can easily do so.

      Taking a product to the market is very different to taking a product to your market. Your market can't wait to see what you are doing next; they want to engage with you more, and they're interested in your latest creation. The broader market couldn't care less.

      Oversubscribed businesses never take products to the market. They don't create something and try to sell it to just anyone. Successfully oversubscribed businesses launch products and services only to those who have expressed interest.

      In 2014, the rumour mill began making noises that Apple was going to release a new category of devices and it was probably going to be a digital watch. This laid down the gauntlet to rival tech giant Samsung who set a goal to beat Apple into the market with their new version of the product.

      Tim Cook took to the stage in September and showed the world Apple's new watch. He described its benefits and demonstrated a video of the product. Naturally this got a standing ovation from the die‐hard fans of MacWorld but the team at Apple knew the rest of the world were seeing this product for the first time and would be more cautious.

      Tim Cook could see from Samsung's poor reviews that the market hadn't yet figured out if it wanted another digital device. He slowed the launch campaign right down and took things step by step. First he made information available online and then released videos of fashion icons describing their experience with the device. Apple took out ads in Vogue, carefully positioning the watch alongside luxury brands. Finally, Apple announced a partnership with high‐end leather goods maker, Hermés.

      It wasn't until April 2015 that Apple made it possible for people to pre‐register for an Apple Watch, but not to buy it. Even when the product launched a month later, you couldn't just walk into a store and purchase one. Customers had to book an appointment online to go into a store, try on the watch and then buy. It wasn't until late 2015 that the Apple Watches were available in stores and on the website.

      Apple had delicately balanced the forces of demand and supply; they spent a year carefully making a market for the product before increasing supply. They understood that it would take time for people to learn about this new device and see its value. They asked people for soft signals long before they asked for them to make a purchase. First they made a market and then they made their sales.

      Even the smallest business can learn from two of the biggest companies in the world. When selling to the market, address people who have been sufficiently warmed up to doing business with you. Take the time to educate or entertain people, ask them to signal their interest to you and hold off trying to sell until you're sure that there's sufficient interest in return.

      SIGNALS OUT, SIGNALS IN

      Entrepreneurs, marketers and business leaders secretly wish people weren't so complex. In our fantasies we create a product, clearly describe it's features, advantages and benefits and then people buy it. Unfortunately, humans don't work this way; we require some warming up.

      Warming people up is about educating and entertaining people so they can make these micro‐decisions. Long before you ask them to buy something you ask for much smaller commitments called signals. Paying careful attention to the signals people are giving, you will easily recognise when you are oversubscribed.

      Rather than rushing your market, slow down and signal what you intend to do. Let them softly signal back their response. Dance with your market, send them a “flirtatious” email that hints about your intentions and let them return a “flutter of the eyes” that lets you know they are not unwilling to entertain what you have in mind.

      Consider two approaches to selling tickets for a special workshop your organisation is running:

      Approach 1

      Approach 2

      You email you list of contacts a thoughtful piece of content discussing a recent book about hiring and managing superstars. The email signs off with


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