Provide Solution To The Customer With Your Product

In the Indian financial history, starting from 1947 when we gained independence, to 1950s, 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, and then we have the post 90 eras. What has been happening is 1947 to 1970 does not count economically because there was political strive, political parties fighting among each other, there were wars war with China and Pakistan, emergency, and all of those things that happen. It was not really an environment for people to get financially prosperous or to get businesses to grow. Either you’re working for a government company, or you’re basically struggling. So this period was a shallow point in economic history.

Indian Economy in 80s

Then you have the 80s when the Indian economy started moving from an agriculture economy to a little bit of development. A little bit of people’s lifestyle started going up. There were no wars for a long time. The focus was more and more on building the economy. So the standards of living were going up. It was said if you want to be successful, you have to become a doctor or engineer etc., because those were the people in great demand. When you needed to build the economy, these people were great in demand. You need to be educated because those are the people who were working for the companies. Then there were small business owners who were primarily supply-side people. Supply-side people means that people had little more money to spend because the standard of living was going up. So what they would do is they would figure out what was the highest quality clothes, for example, the bulk that they could get. And if it was expensive in India, go to Thailand and get it in bulk and then sell it in India. And then Indian people have access to better quality clothing. They were not really making that level of stuff, so these are essentially supply-side businesses.

Indian Economy in 90s

Then what happened was in the 90s, the demand again got boosted because Y2K was coming in the west. All these computer systems needed to be reprogramed, and India was the largest supplier of these engineers. Whether these Engineers went there or they worked from India and provided the services from offshore. And that brought in a lot of foreign exchange to the economy. People who were doing different things brought the skillset-based economy. You’re a doctor, lawyer, a specialized doctor, a specialized lawyer. These people were basically in great demand.

Indian Economy in Post-2000 Era

Then in the post-2000 era, a slowdown happened in the US. The World Trade Center crashed and basically, what they did was they started outsourcing a lot of low-cost labor to a country like India, the Philippines and Vietnam. So India gained out of that because India was English-speaking and was already a technology Hub. So whether it was technology jobs or back-office jobs, it started coming to India. So there was a little boost.

Then what happens is, you were getting paid more diverse. All US dollar money was coming in if you are a corporate professional or work for a company that makes its money in the US. With all that money, you stood to gain from that. And then what happened, you have a lot of money. You want to go and spend it. Then the small businesses creating services and products that you could consume were also growing. Why am I telling you that? Because the first time in the last 30 years, between 2010 and 2020, there has been a flattening out of demand. There’s been a flattening out of salary. Why? Because today, what an Indian employee in a private sector company makes is pretty much equal to what a US employer would make in the same job. So there is no space to grow. So the demand has been flattening out.

And then, whatever the situation in the Indian economy, the demand has not been growing. The inherent demand has not been growing because the foreign exchange has started becoming a little more stagnant. You have people whose lifestyle has been negatively impacted because they’re constantly getting hit by political or financial events. That’s why the businesses are not growing.

On top of that, US companies now realize that this is the number of people they need from India. And then this is the scale of our operation.

Then come certain events, which may be unavoidable and due to which the demand goes down. Then we had the whole Corona situation, so whatever happened, the demand was going down. These people, doctors, lawyers, architects, chartered accountants, small business owners, and corporate professionals, don’t know what to do. They don’t know what to do because, for the last 30 years, they never need to figure out where the demand is going to come from. What it did it basically shut off areas of our brain that could be useful to us in this economy which is how to get demand, how to move products, how to connect with the market. None of the stuff will be useful.

We used to interview people, and when asked what is your previous work experience? They said, well, I have done this for this company, and then they sent me to the UK. So I got training in the UK, and that’s all. I have gone to the UK. So I understand the UK. And then I have done this, and then I have a degree. None of them has been able to figure out what is their product.

What is not going to work in the new economy?

In this new economy, talking about your experience in the UK is not going to work. So if you are a corporate professional and trying the old tricks and it’s not working for you. You feel like you’re risking your job, and you realize that you’re still not getting that same data in any other job you’re applying for; that’s not going to work anymore.

If you’re an independent professional like a doctor or lawyer and are adopting a new finding, you’re at the lowest rung of the staging of influence. There are five stages of influence in the market, and every higher stage has more control and more clout in the market. As of today, a working doctor, lawyer, chartered accountant, and architecture is at the lowest rate of influence. You are the lowest rate of influence. You do not have clout in the market.

And then the 3rd is if you’re a small business owner, you’re sick and tired of getting hurt. But every little thing that happens in the market, as the disease event, or a political event, or any other event, the small business owners is the first out of the game. The world will be great tomorrow, but your needle has not moved for the last many years, and you realize all of this BS is now going to help me.

What do we need to do?

What we need to do is change our mentality from a supply-side economy to a demand-side economy. Which is I don’t care what you do. I don’t care what your product is. I don’t care what degree you have. What experience do you have? Can you generate demand? Can you give them freedom? And how do you do that? How do you do that?

So how is demand generated? Demand is not about your product. Not for your service or your qualification; it’s not about you. The supply-side economy is people already want the stuff. How do I get it to them first? This is why I am such a good lawyer and such a good businessman.

Lesson Number One

In a supply-side economy, you talk about your product, which could be used.

In a demand-side economy, you got to understand what the market is thinking. What’s going on in the market? What is the market? The market is the, let us say, the customer. What is going on in their mind? Do they need more products now? Do they need more services? What is going on in their mind right now?

Lesson Number Two

Two things are going on in their mind.

  • Mistrust
  • Confusion

Mistrust

And on top of that, they don’t trust the people selling to them. They don’t trust anybody. So what happens is if you bring your product to the table and say, this is what I do; this is my visiting card and my website. The first thing they want to do is Google you. What are they going to do? They’re going to go to a search engine publicly acceptable forum. And then they’re going to find out more about you. Why? Because they don’t trust what you say. Okay, so mistrust

Confusion

So what is going on in the mind of the customer is confusion. They don’t know what to do. They don’t know what to buy. They don’t have the money to buy.

Do I want this? I want this or not. Somebody will say, I want you to show me the exact kind of car they want, and then they’re like, okay, let me think about it. Let me talk to my spouse. Let me talk to my boss. Let me talk to a hundred different people, and then they’re like, okay. I’m too confused with all this. Let me not take a decision right now. So they’re confused.

Lesson Number Three

If you start with the problem, whatever the problem is with the customer, you already have your product on the table. You need to go straight to the product, and then you have the cash flow. This is what we call the money honey.

What are the different problems that people have in the coronavirus situation? Find out whatever is going on in your ideal customer’s mind. What is the problem you want to solve? If they want to solve a particular problem, can you solve it? But let’s say your product doesn’t really solve a problem. So what do you do? Do you think what are the problems that people have? And can your product fit in over there? What are the top six problems that people have today?

The number one problem is money. I don’t have money. I want to make money. I don’t have health. I want to protect my health because I don’t want to get coronavirus. So I want to get better immunity. I want to be a better parent. What is the next thing? I want to develop some skills. Like I want to learn how to play the guitar. And then you got anyone dating and relationship, which is a time-tested market. Then you’ve got entertainment. People were locked in their houses, spending time either on TikTok or games. That’s a huge market.

These are the six basic problems that your customers are trying to solve. These six basic problems that you must be trying to solve right now because of industry knowledge. What I’m telling you is Industries knowledge.

So what you do is you try to build trust. The whole game works on clearing up confusion and building trust. It’s not about your product. It’s about, can you clear the confusion around any of these areas? Or if your product can solve a confusion in the customer’s mind. How do you clear the confusion, so they don’t go to Google to check you off? Once they go to Google, they’re not coming back, so you need to provide them with information about the problem. You become Google.

What if you provide them with solution number one? You provide them with solution number two and number three, solution number four, solution number five, solution number six, solution number 7. Out of these seven solutions, only one is your product.

What are you trying to do?

What are you trying to do is this thing called messaging. When you try to give them all of these different solutions, you’re building human connection. The only thing that will work in the market is not your product or service; it’s human connection. Then you have trust and authority.

You need to bring in your influence so that they think you are at a higher level of influence than you really are. You are just a guy trying to sell a product.

Tip for you

Don’t try to be that guy anymore. Try to ascend. Even if you can’t ascend, at least try to show that you know what you’re talking about because what you’re doing is giving them six or seven different options. Then these are the things that work, and out of that, one of them is your product. Now because you provided them with all of these different ideas and free education, and then you solve that clarity in their mind, the confusion is no longer there because Google also creates confusion.

What you do is you provide structured information that helps clear the confusion. That happened because you provided them with different options in addition to your product.

And then some of them will probably be interested in your product. What’s going to make them buy? If you could link your product with any of these items (Money, health, better parenting, entertainment, new skills, relationships), your product is going to move up even in the recession. Not only that, you can actually double your rates and make more profit. Why? Because of the trust.

How do you make a human connection, trust and authority?

There is only one formula. The first way is a selfie video, and the other is to get your message out and build your community. Then you want to set up your business house, which has consulting, information products, and your core product.

Consulting

All of the stuff that you give out for what people go to Google. Consulting provides structured information. There are formats on how to do this.

Information Product

An information product is all of the stuff that you’re doing in your community, all of the stuff that you’re doing in the selfie video. You can have some great products. Just pull out stuff, structure it properly. The money is not in creating. The money is in structuring.

Core Product

You have a consulting product that people can actually set up a call with you or set up a meeting with you. They might end up not buying the product at that time. But you build trust.

And then what happens is once the trust is built, the customer will say, if I ever want to buy this product, I’ll buy it from you and nobody else.

Demand generation Model

This is the concept of a linchpin. You control the demand because you have the community that trust you to control the demand, and you control the supply. You control the price because you can price coordinate among your different product lines and provide a package to the customer that nobody else can provide. On top of that, you’ve invested so much time with them that they say, if I buy, I will buy from this guy who brought me from this level of understanding. This level of understanding that my life has been enriched is because of the knowledge. This is what we call the Demand generation model.

The thing about an ecosystem is here you can create different products and services around your product, and all of them will feed each other. When you build layers of products and services that feed into each other, it’s called an ecosystem. Once a customer comes into any of these entrances, they want to explore more and pay you more. They’ll buy your products and your advice.

You can get to one crore per month only if you don’t allow your little middle-class brain trained to think small and let you down on this. What you should do is to open your mind, let the fresh oxygen flow and quickly evolve yourself into a position where you stand to gain from this down market rather than getting demolished.

 

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