Latest / Pitch to Product / Why A Good Idea Doesn't Guarantee A Good Business
Transcript
- Pitch 2 Product: it's it's not about the product, it's not about the idea, it's about selling it to get revenue. Revenue solves all your business problems. And if you're not focused on the sale, what are you focused on? at business conversations are always I think the most important thing, right, Bob? It's all we have to do. Making making a product is the easiest part of what we do. It's making the business decisions that go with making a product that I think people are expecting us to always answer. And keeping the business running, which is part of having a product that you can keep moving. Now, can we keep it simple? It's hard to answer. Yes. You you you can keep it simple. And look at the the acronym that we always talk about is, you know, the business decisions that you have to make are in that zone where it, you know, our accelerator contract is the labor force of what you need to get the product idea to to market, right? Of course. The business decisions are should I patent this? Got to look into it. Right. And and so it depends on the product, honestly. You know, depends on what you're breaking into. If you're breaking into a hugely competitive market, if you're making a a tripod and 80 companies making tripods, sell your tripod. Right. That's the business. I think that that's like the the best advice, right? I've heard this a few times is that like it, you know, if it can't sell, don't do it. That's that's that's our philosophy. So how do you make it sell? Bobby, can you just make anything sell? Well, everything does sell. Right. You just have to make yours competitive to be able to compete with what's selling. So there's rules to being good at in the sales process. A hundred percent. Right. And and look, that was my origin to this this entire endeavor called fifty two launch and and helping clients figure out what can sell and can't sell. They showed me something like when I first started, people were calling me going, Hey, I got this thing. I invented it. I think it's really cool. Everyone tells me it's great, but nobody's buying it. Right. And and so I discovered it's because, man, it sucked. It was too expensive. It wasn't made right. It was like it it was wonky. You know, it didn't have it didn't feel like a product. And and I encourage everybody, go and look. Go go through like a department store. Go through you know, any place that they sell merchandise and go pick up a product and go and go through this go through your drawer, all the stuff that you've bought that you thought even better idea something and you have a million of them sitting there and they don't do what you needed it to do. Yeah. They got that one sale, but you didn't go back for second and thirds with it. Right, get involved. So there's one product that you see here that you needed that you had to have, it didn't do everything you wanted to, but now it's sitting in your drawer. Right. So the business decision is like, what am I making? I think that's the biggest one, right? Go into your like you said. I actually I went in to clean up my you know, my drawer of utensils and I realized I have three can openers. I'm like, why do I have three can openers? And I realized because you know what? I don't know which one sucks. I just take them and when I throw like I bought three of them because I think that there's better can openers out there. I just haven't found them yet. Stop it. I told you yesterday you got three ice cream scoopers. He goes, No, that one's from Melon Balls. Okay. For those of you, Bobby does stay over at my place and uses my kitchen when he's in from New York. So, but yeah, i it it is a question of what is the business conversation? Business conversation is, you know, will this sell? Exactly. Because that's that's it. You you listen to Mark Cuban, he will tell you every day. You know, it's it's not about the product, it's not about the idea, it's about selling it to get revenue. Revenue solves all your business problems. And if you're not focused on the sale, what are you focused on? It was focused on bankruptcy if you're not thinking about the sale. That's a rebel. That's a really good answer. look at I I thought I thought there was a progression to bankruptcy, but you're right. If you keep doing everything that isn't related to revenue, getting it in today, getting someone to buy it, getting someone to give you a check, like what are you really doing? Nothing. Right. Killing time. It will lead to bankruptcy. Yeah, 100%. And so when you have a product and you can go out and demonstrate it, is it easy to do does everyone love your brand new product, Bobby? The first person might buy it, might love it. Now they have to show it to someone. I mean, listen, if you have a product that does what it's supposed to, the price points are good, it's competitive, you could find uses for it, people will love it. Yeah. But when you come with a product that complicates your life, you're putting that thing to the side. Yeah. It's got have the convenience, the reason you bought it. If doesn't make my life easier, if it doesn't add value, and and we call that a value proposition, correct? It doesn't save me time, doesn't it doesn't help me what I'm doing. It's just a waste. So in the business conversation, how important is it to identify your value proposition? If sales is king, is value proposition the next most important thing? Yes. Before you even go into manufacturing, you have to know the business of the product. Yeah. You have to know the competition. You have to know what your price points need to be. You need to know where you're going to compete at. Well maybe maybe this is gonna be a little confusing where people are like, Well, what does the product have to do with business? The product is the business. Right. It is the business. If you don't understand that, right, it's just like musicians who think the music is is an art. It's not. Like I listened to Gene Simmons the other day from KISS and he's like, I didn't become a musician. I loved music, but I learned the music business. And he sold everything it has to do with the music business. Right. And and so it's the same thing with the product. If the product You know the product will sell. You need to then identify the business that makes it sell more. Yes. Right. You need to find the business that gets you the accolades that you need. You need to find the business that gets you the next step that level up. I always Chris Chris Alfonso from from Lobster and TV said it best. He's like, you gotta find your brand moments, right? So you find it because, like, you know, you get an article written about you, you got someone displayed something about someone an influencer. pro posted your product. Those are brand building moments. Exactly. Follow up. But in the meantime, it was the product that sold itself. The product got you there. And and so look at that's the business of it, right? It's not about whether your idea is a good idea or not. It's how does that product look in someone else's hands? What are they going to say about it? And really this is where, you know, I learned again, given lobster nativity of pitch, I really learned that it's a love or hate relationship. I don't want the in between. I want people to like love the idea or hate the idea. Can can I just Justin, will you please put on the bottom of this screen lobster nativity at click so they could see what we're talking about? Yeah. Please. Please, yeah. You won't believe us if we told you. Because y you know, when when you look at that and you ask Bobby and I, do you think this is a good idea? I I'm not gonna sit here and and say that I am the master at the best ideas. I've I've heard thirty five thousand really bad ideas in the last ten, eleven, fifteen years. Right. you're probably listening to a lot more than I do. Way more. And and so I know what a bad idea looks like, or or better said, I know what what idea won't sell. I could say that also, but there's also ideas that we would listen, we've all been wrong. We've all been wrong on stocks, we've all been wrong. We all have make mistakes, but if you there's nothing we're doing that hasn't been done before. Yes. There's not so if you follow the steps that have been successful and throw all the other extra stuff off, you could mitigate your chances of failing. And at the same time, we can have something targeted to the proper market, which is what we're here to do. Well, and so I I'll give a shout out. This space that we're in used to belong to a gentleman by the name of Dave Latorry. incredible gentleman. He was a designer. he worked for some of the bigger products companies, but he moved in and he, you know, he advised me the best right at the beginning. He said, Don't try and make something that's revolutionary. Take the Brookstone sharper image model and find the product that needs that one thing that makes it different. The little tweak And he goes, find the volume products that are already selling because now you don't have to convince somebody to buy something. So if you already have an idea in a product category that people are already buying, you're already past the sales conversation. You don't need to do the TAMs, right? The total addressable market. What you have to understand is that your best business entry is the market share takeaway. Meaning if I can take a market share and just be a little bit different and identify that difference that people connect with and have a wow factor that's demonstrated. Please subtra know, but that is the exact order in which that has to happen. That is when you can say, Yes, I have to go make this. I I I go back to Harry's Razors. I grew up there was Gillette and there was Remington. Yeah. That was it. Harry's Razors came out online, cheaper, five razors, and captured what, a third of the market? Man, they they fantastic. And and they captured the I don't even know if they have a like be careful here. I'm sure they have an amazing razor, but they really captured the identity of a market where You had to go through a lock and key to get a razor from a store. Like, come on. And and it's funny, in my travels, just so you guys know, that person invented it. He's out he's up in Nashua, New Hampshire. And they were they were a security business that was trying to prevent the drugstore companies and and other stores to prevent those items from being stolen. I swear to you, if that gentleman did not create that system, I'm not sure Harry's razors razors would would have the campaign. I can see that. You know, because Look at how s how silly is it that it was under lock and key. Still is. In some places it still is, right? So razors. Come on, people. I'm in New York City. There's still lock and key. Well, it it does mean that it could sell, right? Because if it can sell, people will try and steal it. That's just the way it is. And and that that's a that's a good business conversation as well, right? That like people are so afraid of people stealing the idea. Does anybody get their idea stolen that isn't selling successfully? Nobody's knocking you off till you sell a million. Let's be honest. And is that the biggest form of flattery? Hundred percent. Right. Imitation is. And so But also your product is an imitation of something else, also. You're still using parts of something else for your product. Nothing's a hundred percent original. This is the best advice I can give to inventors is that you you know, you guys overlook the importance of a brand because if someone is going to knock you off, how important is it to have a brand that can't be knocked off? They could ask for your name. Yes. Ask for your name. Snuggies. Snuggies are a reverse robe with sleeves. It's a blanket with sleeves. But you don't ask for that. No, you ask for a snuggie. Right. And so how important is it to have the name on your product? Paramount. It's Paramount. So when you do that, you have a really good chance of making your next sale just by selling your first sale. So it's it's a business, right? If you don't treat it like a business, you will end up in a what I call the wantrezer wantrepreneur zone. I I wrote this the other day, you know, Yoda said, You do or you do not. There is no try. And that is the most Gen X statement that I could ever imagine. There is no try. If you're trying to do something, you will fail at doing. You have to decide I am going to start a business. I am going to use this product and I'm going to bring this product to market that people love. My old boss has told me a very simple way of saying it. Either shit or get off the pot. Okay. That's it. That's go. Bobby keeps it real. Look at this is all about the business. This is where, you know, this effort that we put in is to help you understand what the next steps are. Where just we're the first step. If you have a product idea or you think that there's something that your family said, wow, you need to go mate this or that, you know it's been bugging you at your soul. I'll I'll give you business news. That itch ain't going away. You gotta go scratch it. We are the best to make sure that you can at least have the right conversations, watch the podcast, and make the business decision to go and scratch this itch. And not just that, turn it into a product business. Exactly. All right. We just finished with let's be honest, a client that's an attorney of ours. Yeah. Four months, he finally said, I wouldn't be able to live myself if I didn't do this. It is the hardest truth that you have to accept. If you if it's not going away, make it real. So look at follow us, like us, share us, make a appointment, talk to Bobby and me, and let's go. Let's go.