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What is a Product-Driven Approach, and Why Do We Use It?

A product-driven approach is a short cycle in which the entire focus of a specialist, entrepreneur, or product manager is directed toward the product. In executing this cycle, it is crucial to act quickly and use metrics and customer feedback as inputs.

This approach allows us to execute rapid launches and quickly start generating sales even before establishing a comprehensive marketing strategy or engaging a broad audience.

Thanks to this approach, you can begin making sales from the very first days of our promotion training, rather than only after you've fully developed your social media accounts.

Interviews are an essential part of the product-driven approach, as they help us understand the needs and requests of our audience, address objections, and ultimately sell.

Our primary focus now will be on the product and identifying the segment of the audience for whom our product will be most relevant. This will assist us both in making immediate sales and in developing a marketing strategy, as we'll have a clear understanding of which audience we need to target to boost sales and how to improve our product.

With this approach, we study the needs, emotions, and goals of the individual.

How Are Psychological Needs, Goals, and Emotions Connected?
What Are the Needs?

• Basic physiological needs
• Safety needs
• Social needs
• Esteem needs
• Self-actualization and growth needs
• Autonomy
• Competence
• Consistency and cognitive balance

The goals that a person forms throughout their life ultimately serve to satisfy certain basic needs.
Humans have deep, unconscious psychological needs. In the current context, considering past experiences and available resources, the brain forms goals to satisfy these needs, such as:

• Attachment: Being a good husband/wife
• Status: Performing better than others at work
• Control: Ensuring an order arrives on time

In the context of how these goals are pursued, a person experiences emotions. This is why we work with emotions to access unconscious needs.
We make 90% of our decisions on an unconscious level, and only afterward does the brain search for rational explanations for our actions, as we don’t have direct access to the unconscious. Emotions are the closest to this unconscious realm, which is why people don’t buy a product itself but the emotions it provides them.

Establishing Emotional Connection
The respondent's defense system, which automatically kicks in, consists of the following questions:

• Are you an obvious threat to me?
• Where do you stand in the social hierarchy: above or below me?
• Are we similar or not? Am I ready to accept you?

These questions arise instantly, and the psyche continues to search for answers until it finds them. If the psyche cannot find an answer, the person withdraws from the conversation or adopts a closed posture.
There are two stages of establishing an emotional connection:

• Basic (1-5 minutes): The person sits in a closed posture, does not trust you, and may respond to questions very reluctantly.
• Emotional Connection: The person actively shares their thoughts, smiles, and talks about their emotions.

Steps to Establish an Emotional Connection:

1. Demonstrate Emotions to Set the Tone: ("I'm really glad you found the time to talk; I'm very happy to meet you; it's important for me to understand my audience better.") Displaying emotions is perceived as showing vulnerability. When someone allows themselves to be vulnerable around us, our trust in them increases.
2. Smile: Smiling activates mirror neurons, causing the other person to smile too. This releases the hormone oxytocin (the hormone of attachment and trust, also produced during feelings of love).
3. Show Open Hands and Gesture More: (Don't keep your hands under the table, behind your back, etc.—this is perceived as aggression).
4. Maintain a Confident Posture: Don’t slouch, hide, or dart your eyes around—maintain eye contact.
5. Overcome Insecurity: (A confident posture sends signals to our brain). Breathe calmly, reduce the perceived importance of the situation. Even unsuccessful experiences are still experiences!
6. Give a Sincere Compliment: (You have a pleasant voice, you’re a delightful person, you have a beautiful smile).
7. Make a Small Mistake or Share a Past One: This helps the person understand that they too can make mistakes, speak calmly, and not worry about choosing the right words.
8. Listen Actively: (Nod, agree).
9. Find Common Ground: (It’s important for people to see themselves in us. Point out something you have in common—facing similar problems or feeling the same way).
10. Reflect Back Questions: ("Did I understand correctly that...").

Lesson's transcription

How to establish an emotional connection with a respondent, a potential client, with whom we are conducting diagnostics or a consultation? You will have a clear and detailed script later, but here, the non-verbal aspect is also crucial.

Yes, because, as I mentioned in previous lectures, we read an enormous amount of information non-verbally. For instance, when someone is lying, their speech might seem convincing, but something feels off. We pick up on this at a subconscious level.

When you study psychology and deviations, you start to understand how normal perception works better. Understanding how the brain functions helps in sales and communication with people. Therefore, studying psychology is very important, and it can be more useful than knowledge of fitness, as people come with deeper needs like attention, love, status, and so on.

If you sit in a closed posture, with your legs and arms crossed, it is perceived as aggression. Therefore, it's important to show openness and safety by demonstrating your hands and using gestures. This helps the person understand that you are not a threat and that you are on the same level as them.

Establishing an emotional connection usually takes about 2-4 minutes, sometimes up to 15 minutes, depending on how closed the person is. It's important to smile; it helps establish contact. Smiling makes us appear more friendly and open. This is a psychological trick based on mirror neurons, which are activated when we see another person smiling, and we begin to smile as well. This triggers a release of endorphins, which improves mood for both you and your interlocutor.

A smile helps build trust and makes you appear more likable. People feel more comfortable and are more willing to share information when they see your genuine interest. This also helps you gather more information that you can use in your work.

Listen to the person carefully. People love to talk about themselves, and if you show genuine interest, it strengthens trust and makes communication more productive. Don't be afraid of pauses in the conversation; sometimes silence allows the person to think more deeply and respond more fully.

Agreeing is also important. Nod, agree, and show that you understand the person. This makes them feel more relaxed and confident that their opinions and feelings are valued.

These techniques help create a comfortable space, which is crucial for establishing a connection and obtaining the necessary information. If the person doesn’t open up immediately, don’t be discouraged; continue working and use methods to build rapport. This will help you better understand the client’s needs and offer appropriate solutions.
In conclusion, if you genuinely want to help and show interest, it will help you build a connection and establish trust. Good luck!

Customer Retention

Customer retention is very important because we invest resources, money on traffic, and our time or our team's time to attract each client. Therefore, it's crucial that a client repays these costs multiple times and helps grow our customer base. If every month we attract 10 new clients, then with high retention of existing clients, we will grow quickly. But if clients come and go, we end up stuck with the same number of clients each time and fail to scale.

Lesson's transcription

On Customer Retention: Why It Matters and How We Achieve It

Customer retention is crucial for any business, and understanding its importance is key to success. We have various products and services, and some of them are needed by people on a regular basis.

For example, an online trainer who provides ongoing workout sessions needs to have clients coming back month after month. However, there are also products like certain training programs that people complete and then move on. In such cases, customer retention can be challenging because there's no recurring action month after month.

The best business model is one where there is high customer retention, meaning we provide services that people need on a continuous basis and with which they return to us and recommend us to their friends.

Another business model involves customer acquisition through word-of-mouth, but not just any word-of-mouth; for instance, using a system like Zoom. Zoom is a video conferencing tool that we use to communicate with clients. If a client didn't know about Zoom before, they will learn about it through our use of the tool.

This is another business model where we create services that involve collaboration with others, like software or applications.

The third type of business model is the most challenging, where services do not repeat monthly. For example, a furniture workshop: a client may come, get furniture made, and then forget about you until they need repairs again. In such cases, you need to target an audience segment that uses your services for their clients.

For instance, a furniture workshop might collaborate with designers who need to offer furniture to their clients regularly, ensuring a steady flow of referrals.

If your service does not have organic retention, you need to find ways to create it or address different customer needs through various products.

For example, a person planning a vacation might book a hotel but also needs transportation and tours. A hotel can provide these additional services to create a comprehensive product line. It's crucial to understand your audience deeply, beyond just offering one course or service.

Entrepreneurs often see opportunities where specialists might not, and this ability to spot needs and gaps allows them to offer multiple products or services.

For example, trainers can expand from offering just workouts to including nutrition plans, consultations, and even meal delivery.

Understanding your customer’s daily routine helps in creating products that meet their needs at various stages. For instance, a hotel may offer amenities that align with a guest's routine, like a shoehorn, to enhance their experience. Customer retention is vital because acquiring a new client requires significant resources.

If you invest in acquiring a client, you want them to return multiple times or purchase various services to justify the cost. With effective retention strategies, clients become cheaper to serve over time, and your client base grows.

If you can’t retain clients, you’ll be stuck in a cycle of constantly acquiring new ones, which is both psychologically and financially taxing.

Therefore, every time you create a product, think about how it will ensure repeat business or create a product line that meets various needs of your clients.

CONTEXT

Here, we gather context, psychological traits, past experiences, and the trigger that led to the decision-making process.
Where do you live? What are your hobbies? What do you do for work? (Understanding the context and allowing the person to open up with simple questions.) How did you decide to lose weight? (Trigger) Have you always had excess weight? How have you dealt with it? If not, what happened, and what events led to it? (Experience)

WANT

We find out the clear and specific result they desire.
What would you like to achieve? ("Lose weight")

WHY

We uncover the deeper needs behind this desire.
We ask questions like "Why do you want to lose weight?" and "Why do you want to look better?" until we reach the person’s fundamental need and emotions.

SOLUTION

What solution did the person find for this problem, and what issues arose with that solution?
How have you tried to lose weight before? What results did you achieve? What didn’t work? Why didn’t it work? What did you not like? What would you like to change in the solution?

THIS IS WHERE THE SO-CALLED "PROBLEM INTERVIEW" BEGINS

This isn’t an interview that will cause you problems, but rather an interview where we identify problems and their solutions. :)

Question 1
Tell me, how do you usually address this problem (in detail)? How much does it cost? Are you satisfied with the results? If not, why?

Question 2
Have you ever successfully lost weight? What happened afterward? How often did this happen?

Question 3
In response to this question, we should list the problems the person faces and address each problem separately with questions 4-10. For example, questions 4-10 will not be about losing weight but rather about issues like setbacks.
What difficulties do you typically encounter when addressing this problem?

Question 4
We ask this question because it’s easier to remember a story than a fact, helping us better recall what the respondent says.
Please tell me about a typical instance when you faced this problem.

Question 5
We ask this question to ensure the problem is relevant and frequent.
How often does this happen? When was the last time you faced this problem?

Question 6
We gather context.
In what situations do you usually face this problem?

Question 7
We keep asking this question until we get an emotional reaction or hear the same answer twice. This is the person’s true concern.
What bothers you the most about this problem?

Question 8
What emotions do you feel when facing this problem?

Question 9
We need an assessment report from the respondent so we can later prioritize the pain/problem.
Rate the intensity of the emotion on a scale from 1-10, where 10 is the highest possible emotion.

Question 10
Here we address the fact that sometimes a problem triggers emotions, but those emotions don’t lead to action. If the person didn’t do anything to solve the problem, it might not be a very significant issue.
Have you tried to solve this problem?


THIS IS WHERE THE SOLUTION INTERVIEW BEGINS - WHERE WE OFFER A SOLUTION TO THE PROBLEM

Verbalize the Client’s Needs
So, you want to lose weight to feel confident by eliminating setbacks and anxiety about food. Is that correct?

Describe Our Product
It’s best to use decomposition. Here, the emphasis will be placed depending on the client’s specific answers (what they want, what they expect).
Imagine we offer you personal coaching where I, as your personal trainer, create a program tailored to you and your goal. As a result, you will no longer have setbacks because we won’t be banning anything. Moreover, the anxiety about food will go away because, despite the lack of bans, you will see results—excess water will be gone within the first week, and after another week, you will have much more energy and strength as your body adjusts to the properly distributed load. You will start to lose weight and like what you see in the mirror, and I will be with you all the time to monitor this process, support you, and track your condition, mood, and routine. We will gradually and gently solve your problem and guarantee results. Thanks to our psychological approach, you will feel more confident every day.

Then We Ask Questions
Does the product meet your needs? Why or why not? What are its strengths? What are its weaknesses? How does it compare to competitors or the solutions you have used before to achieve your goal?

Price and Value
Does the price match the value?

Price and Budget
It’s important to differentiate these two questions because matching value doesn’t always mean matching the budget and vice versa.
Does the price fit your budget?

If Yes (fits the budget)
This is a great point that allows us to sell without feeling awkward because we are analyzing the product and its value!
Are you ready to buy right now?

If Yes (ready to buy)
We proceed with the sale. :)

If No (not ready to buy)
Here, the person reveals their true objections—we either address them during the interview or record them for future interviews or content to address them later.
Why aren’t you ready?

If No (doesn’t fit the budget)
What budget would you be willing to allocate per month? Look, to achieve your result, we need three months of work, but we can offer payment in installments over six months (or 10 months, depending on the budget), so you can achieve the result at a comfortable cost for you.

Homework

Your task will be to ask your audience on social media/ex-clients or on-going clients/friends/people you know to participate in an interview with you. You need to conduct 15 interviews over the next 4 weeks!

Gather your entire audience that might potentially be interested in your service. Learn about their needs and offer them your comprehensive coaching service.

Remember, we’re not selling workouts or nutrition plans—we’re selling the client their end goal! Prepare a detailed breakdown of your rates and service packages so you don’t get lost during the interviews. Don’t be afraid to sell.

Most of these people have never been offered a product like comprehensive online coaching, so they never knew they needed it to achieve their goal.

Good luck!