Walking the entrepreneur’s path is often a lonely journey. Sometimes, even with brilliant ideas and a burning vision of what we want to build, we end up making and doing some really brain-dead things. I know I have…
That’s why this James Altucher article at Techcrunch grabbed my attention…
About This Show:
Each Wednesday, Sam Stern, founder and Chief Marketing Technologist at Modallic, an mHealth marketing and brand development firm reveals his winning Mobile, Digital and healthcare IT marketing strategies, shares real life Mobile Health marketing success stories, and offers breakthrough marketing tips and tactics so you can lead the field with your Mobile Health and healthcare IT solutions.
Discover how to craft compelling stories to open doors with key health care system decision makers. Understand how an agile marketing mindset and approach positions you to create a profitable, sustainable business.
Gain insights into Mobile Health and healthcare IT marketing strategy, how to tell your unique mHealth and healthcare IT marketing story, creating your mHealth buyer personas, how to integrate an agile marketing process, mobile health and digital health brand development and market positioning, and learn what really works in attracting and landing mobile health and healthcare IT clients.
Show Notes:
Five Things Healthcare IT Entrepreneurs Should Never Do
In his post, serial entrepreneur James Altucher shares a story of his attempt to help a software developer friend. Altucher sets the software entrepreneur up with a very profitable billion dollar plus revenue company who he believes could use the software.
His friend makes five basic, yet critical, mistakes:
1. He was late- Altucher needed to call and remind him a week later to deliver the demo that the software entrepreneur said would only take him minutes to knock out.
2. He was focused on raising money- He didn’t take time to create the demo because his focus was on building a prototype to attract venture capital.
3. He under-delivered- His response was to fit his solution into his product rather than delivering what was wanted.
4. He didn’t solve his own problem- More of not really responding to want the customer wanted.
5. He didn’t offer new ideas- More of not really including some basic things that fit what the client wanted.
Altucher’s solutions to these five mistakes are brilliant in their common sense. And, they re-confirm the need to adopt a customer-focused lean approach that includes testing that we talked about in the past two week’s podcasts.
1. Be on time- enough said.
2. Your customer is your audience, not venture capitalists. When you have an opportunity to deliver for a potential customer, find out what they want and if you can profitably deliver value, do it.
3. Over-deliver- Give the customer what he wants… and then some. Go the extra mile. Altucher is right: so few businesses actually do this.
4. Be proactive in solving customer’s problems- When you spend time to deeply learn what problems your customers face and what they really want, you add tremendous value. You’re no longer a vendor. You become a valued business partner.
5. Providing new ideas does position you as a business partner- Not as a bullshit vendor trying to squeeze money out of them, as Altucher calls it.
Using a continuous lean Build-Test-Learn feedback loop provides you with a system to deliver what the customer truly wants.
Altucher’s quote pretty much sums up the lean approach in real non-corporate speak language:
“All you can hope to do is get close enough to what the customer wants so that they then notice you. If you look good and they ask you to dance, then you better be light on your toes or you will fall.”
A lean, agile approach allows you to be light on your toes.
When a prospect says “Let’s dance!” to your healthcare IT solutions, you’ll know the right steps to take.
Next up… a Lean approach Digital Health Success story.
Resources:
Five Things Entrepreneurs Should Never Do
Will You Help Me Get This Message Out There?
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You will make a lot of money if you simply:
- Deliver on time
- Don’t focus on venture capitalists (the customer is your audience, not the venture capitalist)
- Over-deliver (it is so easy to over-deliver and so few do it)
- Catch and solve easy problems before the client sees them
- Come up with new and continuing ideas so that the client views you as a partner and not just another bullshit vendor trying to scrape money out of them. Keep in touch with the client and see how you can brainstorm every few days or so to come up with new ideas for them.
It’s really that simple to make a ton of money.
Another very important thing: The site he is developing for this potential client is slightly different than his initial software. He had to tweak it to make it fit my needs. Always assume that you have no idea what your customers want. In 99.9 percent of cases, remember, the startup pivots and not the client.
All you can hope to do is get close enough to what the customer wants so that they then notice you. If you look good and they ask you to dance, then you better be light on your toes or you will fall.
Focus on client wants and needs-
Invest in deep understanding of your buyers. Invest in figuring out how to tell a story that resonates with your buyers.
