The Only 2 Sure-Fire Ways to Sell a Product No One's Buying

You sit down in your chair at the start of another day. You're racking your brain trying to answer a single question. A question that seems to haunt you.

"I have a great product. Why is no one buying?!"

You're probably right. You probably do have a great product. But the customer doesn't see any urgency to buy it. Nor do they see a need.

Why don't they? Let's look at a few reasons why.

I'll talk about a hypothetical internet business to keep from getting too personal.

Let's say you're selling an ebook. Something that anyone can whip up in a weekend if they have enough knowledge.

But you put effort into yours. Yours is different. (I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt here)

You post on social media about all the benefits. You list out 10 bullets about the "secrets" you reveal inside.

You price it reasonably at $9.

And when you launch it, you get... Crickets.

What happened?

Here's the issue. You have a solution in search of a problem. You started your business backwards.

You started with what YOU wanted to sell. Not what people wanted to buy.

You have a great product that no one asked for.

NOW what do you do?

Well, you really only have a couple ways to fix it.

Go Back to The Beginning

What I'm about to tell you, I learned the hard way. I wish I hadn't, but I can't go back and fix it now.

And if you want to avoid the pain and the financial loss I had, then I suggest you listen.

Because this will save you months of pain and thousands of dollars.

I've written 3 books. All in the personal development space.

I fell in love with that field when I was still a teenager working at a dead-end job. My mind was filled with garbage, and I had tons of time on my hands.

I couldn't watch videos or listen to CDs. Reading was my only option. So, I found a book called "The Mind Made Prison". Sounded interesting since I felt like I was stuck in more ways than one.

That book led to many more.

And soon, I had learned so much about how to get your mind right, I wanted to share how I overcame my own struggles.

So, I spent 2 and a half months writing my first book called "Make Life Your Business" (in hindsight, this is a terrible title, the marketer in me is crying).

I was so proud of it and couldn't wait to share it with the world.

I used metaphors to relate business to life. How your appearance is Marketing. How your communication is Sales.

I dropped nugget after nugget of gold.

And when the day came to launch, my heart was racing.

Then it happened.

No sales.

How could this be? This is a great book! Is everyone stupid? (that's a conversation for another time).

What I learned from that experience changed how I think about business.

The beginning of a good business starts with the customer, not the product.

There's a book I have called "Fall in Love with the Problem". Notice it doesn't say "product". There's a reason.

Customers have problems. You have products. But they don't need products. They need solutions to problems.

That means if your product doesn't fix a problem, they don't need it.

So, you have to go back to the beginning. To the customer.

What do they want? What keeps them up at night? What are they afraid to confront?

These are 3 pretty basic questions to get you started. But you should know your customer better than yourself.

No one asked for my book. I had a product in search of a problem.

I didn't start with the market.

Here's what this means for you: Your product may serve your customer. It may be great.

Let's say you sell to lawncare businesses. You've got some doohickey that helps them do something. But it's not something they care about.

What do you do?

Well, you could just try and sell it like I did with my book. But you have wisdom I didn't, so you won't do that.

What do you do instead?

Go back to the market and dig in. Ask them what their real problems are.

Maybe your product is directionally correct and you just need to pivot slightly. Maybe you spent time and money building something no one will ever want.

The market will tell you that. You won't learn that sitting at home.

But better to find out now.

The alternative is spending marketing money to find out that you have a dud. That's more expensive, and frankly, stupid.

Manufacture a Problem

If you skimmed to get here, go back to the first section. It's the most beneficial long term.

But if you want the quick and dirty, this is the section you'll gravitate to.

Ok, let's assume you don't have the time or money to go back to the market. You have a product you need to sell now.

What do you do?

I'll illustrate what to do by telling you about Listerine.

They created "halitosis". A fancy term that means bad breath.

It wasn't a doctor's diagnosis. There were no medical studies to back this up.

This was from a copywriter.

Listerine was originally a surgical antiseptic. Then it was sold as a floor cleaner.

But when it wouldn't sell as a solution for any of those problems, they did something that savvy marketers have done for quite some time.

They created a problem.

They made up "halitosis" to sell their solution.

People just lived with their breath before Listerine. But they made it a problem, and oh look, they happen to have the solution.

So, let's go back to our lawncare business. Let's say they're not making enough (YOUR standards, not theirs). You tell them in your ebook that direct mail is what they need to do.

But they have no idea about that.

You have to manufacture a problem.

In simple terms, you describe a situation your customer is having, and you tell him why it's a problem.

Maybe they're native to digital marketing and have no interest in direct mail.

How do you change their minds?

You have to turn digital against them. You have to highlight all the things that digital can't do. You have to make digital marketing painful.

And after you've made it hurt, you give them the cure (that wording is intentional).

Congratulations, you've created a problem your product solves.

If you get good at this, you become valuable. Because you're not the only business in that particular situation.

Unfortunately, this stupid mistake gets made more often than it should.

But, in short, that's how you get out of it.

Your Takeaway

I start all my clients with the market. If you come to me with a product and no market, be prepared to change it.

The market wins. Always. They're the ones with the money! And if we want the money, we have to give them what they want.

But if you've got a product and no money to do the proper research, you've got to manufacture a problem.

Turn their solution against them. Make them aware of all the pains they may have accepted as the cost of using that method.

Twist the knife. Make it hurt.

Then, offer the cure.