#6 Weekly Dan — Selling Transformation
Going beyond Jobs-To-Be-Done
Hello there
This is the #6 Issue of Weekly Dan.
Surprisingly, on Tuesday. Let me explain.
I understood that there is life beyond short-format Friday issues.
That’s why from now on, I will deconstruct one framework for Indie Entrepreneurs every Tuesday. Mostly from marketing and product development.
Today we will go beyond Jobs-To-Be-Done.
Why should you bother? 👀
Imagine that you are working on an online course “Become a Software Engineer in 6 months”.
You have a lot of experience in this field. It’s high time to share this knowledge with others.
One day you meet Amanda. She wants to change her profession and is curious about the Tech industry. Great match for your online course!
So you approach Amanda to tell her about your online course.
If you are a first-time founder, your pitch will look like this:
— I have a great course. It has 500+ exercises and 30 theory topics. We will work with these 20 tools every day for 3 hours.
You focus on features and meaningless statistics. Amanda doesn’t want to pay $2000 for 500 exercises. She, frankly, doesn’t care about the number of exercises. If there were 400 of them, she would still be interested.
Amanda cares about one thing. What value can this course bring to her. That’s why you need to have a Jobs-To-Be-Done.
You (from a different multiverse) approach Amanda again. This your pitch now
— I have a great course. With its theory and practice, you will become a Software Engineer in 6 months.
Better. But here is another problem.
What if Amanda is interested in your course, but not 100% ready to buy it?
Repeating the same value proposition won’t help it. Instead, you will just irritate Amanda.
That’s why you need to sell the transformation.
How does it work? 💡
The majority of your product visitors are not ready to buy your product. They need more than just an offer. They want you to persuade them.
By selling transformation, you will reinforce your value proposition. This way, more people will relate to it.
To achieve it, you need to nail two levels: reasons and channels.
Reasons strengthen your value proposition. There are three types of them.
Rational — facts and statistics
Emotional — desired emotional state
Social — role model or community belonging
Let’s return to our online course “Become a Software Engineer in 6 months”. We can strengthen its value proposition with these reasons.
Rational — Software Engineers earn $200K+ in Silicon Valley
Emotional — Software Engineers enjoy work-life balance
Social — Software Engineers build the “Future” in companies like Apple
Each reason grabs attention differently.
But all of them sell the bigger value proposition — you should become a Software Engineer.
Unfortunately, this is not enough.
If you repeat these messages in one marketing channel, your users will get tired.
Nobody was ever bored into buying a product.
That’s why you need the second part of the framework — channels.
Channels create opportunities to repeat your value proposition. There are three types of them.
Rational — free part of the product
Emotional — emotional connection with a person
Social — social proof from other customers
We could pick these channels for our online course.
Rational — curriculum brochure
Emotional — webinar with a lecturer
Social — case studies with successful graduates
Great mix for an info product. Different users will discover an A-ha moment in a way that is comfortable for them.
And now it’s time for magic.
In each channel you will translate the same value proposition that is reinforced by the same reasons.
But every time it will feel different for your users.
This is repetition without boredom.
Your online course’s value proposition just got a level up.
Hopefully, Amanda has already left the party. Otherwise, her $2000 would be ours.
What’s next? 🛠
Let’s supercharge your positioning and marketing funnel in 4 steps.
Define your Jobs-To-Be-Done
What value can customers get from your product?
How much time do you need to provide this value?
Define your transformation reasons
What are the rational reasons to start the transformation?
What are the emotional reasons to start the transformation?
What are the social reasons to start the transformation?
Define your transformation channels
What are the rational channels to sell the transformation?
What are the emotional channels to sell the transformation?
What are the social channels to sell the transformation?
Give it a try
Pack the new positioning and marketing funnel in one document
Start a marketing campaign to validate the new approach
Compare the Conversion Rate to the current marketing strategy
Experiment with new reasons and channels
Don’t sell features.
But don’t just repeat your value proposition, either.
Instead, use this holistic approach to target more users in your marketing funnel.
That’s it!
What do you think about this new format?
I would love to hear your thoughts. It’s an experiment for me.
And see you on Friday with the usual 5 golden nuggets.
Absolutely not a CTA 🙃
1) Learn more marketing frameworks with MakerBox Framework.
Only for Founders who care about marketing.
2) Let me roast your landing page.
It will be painful. You will get more paying customers from it.