Hello and welcome back to Startup Curious, where we discuss things you should know if you’re thinking about working for or starting a startup.
Today, I want to discuss how to communicate the impact your product can have, as opposed to just communicating the things your product can do. This is something that’s important in pretty much all external communications - sales, marketing, even fundraising. It can be really tempting to just start going down a list of features when asked about your product, but generally that doesn’t make people excited… and most people have to be some level of excited to use or invest in your product.
The one exception to this is when you find yourself talking to a potential customer or investor who fits perfectly into your target customer base, has experienced the problem you’re trying to solve and has envisioned a solution that includes pretty much the exact list of features you do. In those cases, they’re coming to the conversation with a lot of pre-created excitement, and it makes your job easier. Definitely take a moment to appreciate those conversations when you’re lucky enough to have them!
The rest of the time, you’re going to have to do more work on your end to cultivate excitement, and the best way to do that is to make the person you’re talking to understand how your product is going to make their life better in some way - communicating the impact of what you’re building.
I think it’s probably easiest to describe with an example. Let’s say you’re building a product that veterinarians can give to their customers to help them track their pet’s prescriptions. You could say something like “Our product allows you to enter prescriptions, and then your customers will have access and be able to track and manage them. If they have any questions, they can click a button to contact you via our messaging system.”
Or you could say “Our product makes it easier for your clients to track prescriptions and keep their pets healthy. They can also keep in touch with you via our messaging system which will reduce the amount of time your vet techs spend on the phone answering client concerns.”
As you can see, the first one is a list of features. If a veterinarian feels fine about the way they’re handling their prescription management right now, they won’t feel particularly excited about the product you’re describing. The second version, while it does mention some features, focuses more on why this product is a better way of going about things. It will help your clients keep their pets healthy. It will reduce the amount of phone calls your vet techs have to deal with. Even if a vet entered the conversation thinking everything was fine with their veterinary practice, this makes them think for a minute “Could things be better?”
It seems simple, but it can be legitimately challenging to think about communicating in this way, because it’s going to feel like you’re stating the obvious. “Of course better prescription management would help keep pets healthy!” and so on. Just try to remember that not everyone has spent the hours you have thinking of the problem and your solution, and so things that seem obvious to you will seem less obvious to everyone else.
If you’re struggling to figure out the impact you want to communicate, go back to basics - who is your target customer? What problem are you solving for them? When your product solves their problem, what changes about their life? Does something get easier, does something take less time, does someone make more money? You get the idea.
This is pretty much the same when talking to investors about your product, except many investors will be even further away from the problems you’re solving. How many former veterinarian investors do you know? In that case, you may need to set the scene a bit before communicating the impact: “Veterinarians are currently struggling to keep up when it comes to helping their clients manage prescriptions. Our product simplifies the process, saving them both time and money… and making pets everywhere happier and healthier!”
This is especially true if you’re working in an industry with a lot of jargon - you can’t assume investors will be familiar with all the same terms your customers will be, so you may need to develop alternate, simplified language. Basically… how would you describe it to a relative who’s never worked in your field?
The other thing to keep in mind is that you need to communicate an extra level of impact to investors - what the impact will be for them if they invest in you. Luckily, every investor has more or less the same motivation: they want to invest in things that will make them money. Communicating the size of the market and your customer base’s willingness to pay are simple ways to let investors know that this is a money making business. If you don’t have a ton of data, you can try using anecdotes of happy customers or potential customers as well - basically, whatever proof you can provide that you will be able to make a ton of money with this business.
The burden of proof required will vary depending on the investor - similar to how some potential customers will be pre-excited about your business, some investors will be pre-excited about the industry or market you’re working in, and won’t require as much proof. However, it can be difficult to know whether or not an investor falls into this category ahead of time, so make sure to come with every conversation prepared.
Alright, that’s about it for today. One last thing I want to mention is that while I framed this mostly in terms of conversations, it really matters for every external communication - your marketing website, ad copy, etc. It also doesn’t stop once a user signs up for your product. You will continually want to remind them of the value you can provide (though it can often be a bit easier once they’re using your product and you have some data - think of Instacart’s “You’ve saved 100 hours of time this month” - very effective). You’ll also need to figure out how to communicate the value of new features as you release them, to help encourage users to expand their usage of your product. Don’t worry though - the more you think about things in this way, the easier it will get, I promise!
Thank you for joining us today! If you found this episode useful, please remember to subscribe and share. Our goal is to make startups more approachable for everyone and the only way we can do that is to get the word out!
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If you have a topic you’d like to learn more about, or you’re a founder who would like their story featured on this show, send me an email at v@thescrappyoperator.com.
How do I communicate my product's impact?