How Founders Make Their Offer Easy to Buy

I joined Rick Spence on the Startup Canada Podcast. It's a show for Canadian founders who are building something from the ground up. We talked about offers and sales. Both get harder when you try to do too much at once. Here is how I think about them.

Make the offer simple

Most founders sell too many things. The list looks impressive, but it makes the buyer work. My advice is to pick one clear outcome and build a short process around it. Three to five steps, named for what the client gets, not for what you do. When the offer is easy to understand, it gets easier to sell and easier to price. A premium problem can carry a premium price. You just have to point the offer at that problem.

If you want to see how this plays out for a specific business model, I dug into it more on the 21st Century Entrepreneurship podcast.

Sell in a way people trust

Selling is not about explaining yourself. People buy when they feel understood, not when they understand you. So I spend more time on their pain than on my pitch. I want to map what happens if nothing changes over the next few months. That is honest, and it moves the right people forward. It also helps me spot a bad fit early, which saves everyone time. I walk through more of this thinking on the DoGoodWork podcast.