The product development process

There are a few reasons to follow a tried and true process when developing a product: 1. It will save you money 2. It will save you time 3. It will increase your odds of success This process — which you will encounter over and over again if you talk to those with experience or search the internet — has …

Addressing customer loyalty with The Ultimate Question

Addressing customer loyalty with The Ultimate Question Customer loyalty is a great measure of how much value you’re actually providing. This measure is important because, chances are, your customers are less loyal than you think. Indeed, research presented in the books The Challenger Sale and The Effortless Experience, by Matthew Dixon, indicates that price has little to do with customer …

An easy way to quantify the effectiveness of your marketing

  There’s one simple question you can ask to measure the effectiveness of your marketing strategies. You might already be doing it. But we want to be sure you understand just how useful it is, why its useful, and what exactly you can accomplish with it. The question is: “How did you discover our product/brand?” Obvious enough, right? Specifically, what …

Three ways to provide value to your customers besides competitive pricing

You do a disservice to both your customers and yourself when you restrict your value proposition to price alone. Price is a critical aspect of value, of course. The customer will always think about price, and they should. Your job is to help see them see value as something more than price. To do that, you need to actually provide …

Buying a business

Measuring your most valuable sales

What makes a particular sale or customer more valuable than others? Obviously, the number one thing to consider is profit. The best customers are the ones who are eager to buy, and to spend a lot with you— particularly on your most profitable products/services. Even better, they’re loyal to you and they keep coming back, with very little coaxing. Identifying …

KPI crash course: Cost-per-sale

Previously, we talked about the value of the cost-per-lead metric. In fact, we’ve mentioned the value of it in marketing, as well as in quantifying the market value of your business. Potential buyers love hard numbers. And with the cost-per-sale metric, you can demonstrate 1) profitability, and 2) that you speak their language. So how much does it cost you, …

KPI crash course: Cost Per Lead

Why should you care about Cost Per Lead? Among other things, its an effective metric for quantifying cost vs effectiveness of marketing. Your CPL needs to be lower than your Cost Per Sale, and obviously much lower than your average ticket total. There are a few key insights we can get from tracking CPL, and from comparing it to other …

Intro to Physical Prototyping

The first thing to understand about prototyping is what, exactly, the goal of it is. Prototyping allows you to learn more about an idea or product at relatively low cost. There is a traditional three-step process that design professionals use to do this: Concept drawing Visual modeling Show ready modeling Every step of this process is meant to learn as …

Improve your business by focusing on process rather than product

The product you create is the result of your processes. So it can be said that where you really make your money is in the process. That’s where you do things differently than your competitors, and that’s where you can find extra value to provide to your customers. The process is ultimately what you’re creating — a system or machine …

Building Digital Products Conceptualization, Prototyping, Development

What goes into building a digital product, like an app or website? What does it cost? How does the process go? Who will you need to work with? An overview of the process will help you understand how to establish the efficacy, scope and development costs of turning your idea into a product. This will help you determine if the …