Finding Your Business Hook

Finding Your Hook
Davender Gupta
Venture Strategist
Co-Founder StrategyFest.com
and The Scaleup Project
Presented to YES Montreal
“Value Selling” Entrepreneur Workshop - Part One
17 October 2017
©2017 Davender Gupta. All rights reserved. davender@davender.com rev 171017

Summary Great businesses aren’t built on products,
they’re built on communicating value.
Your value is in the “hook”: what problem
you’re trying to solve or what need you’re
trying to fill.
Use customer-focused language to
better describe your products and
services in order to attract people who
value what you offer and who are ready
to buy.

If you only remember
one thing…
People don’t want
your products and
services.
They want the change
your products and
services can create for
them.

Why listen to me?
• 17 years experience coaching small business
and tech startups
• Launched and led the FastTrac tech startup
pre-accelerator in Québec City
• “Canada’s Top Ten Rock Star Mentor” by
Startup Canada and Futurpreneur Canada
• Graduate of Entrepreneurship Development
Program (MIT-Sloan) and
Executive MBA McGill-HEC
• This is what I do for my own business!

Outline
What is a business?
Finding the Right Place – Right Time – Right Fit
The Business Model Canvas and Value Creation
Focus on the Value Proposition
What is the “job to be done”?
How does your offer fit their need?
Crafting your Value Proposition Statement

RESOURCES
NO
MEANS
THE VALUE
ZONE
NO NEED NO ENERGY
MY
Ideas
Passions
Needs
Dreams
Interests
Skills
Desires
YOUR
Ideas
Passions
Needs
Dreams
Interest
s
Skills
Desires
A Business
is a
system
to...
Create
value
Deliver
value
Capture
value

Your mission…
To solve an
important problem
or to satisfy a
strong desire
so as to make
a tangible and
measurable difference
in your customer’s life.

True or False?
My offer is
for everyone.
Once people
see or use
my offer,
they’ll buy.
People are looking
for what I have
to offer.
People will buy
from me
because I’m better
than the
competition.

The reality is that
most people
don’t care...
Population
Interest
Hate It Neutral Love it
You want to
find who is
most likely
to love
what you offer

Who do you want to serve?
Describe your “perfect customer”
©2017DavenderGupta.Allrightsreserved.davender@davender.comrev171017
Who are they?
What do they do?
Where do they live?
How old are they?
What is their education?
What is their family status?
What do they believe in?
What do they aspire to?
What keeps them up at night?

Understand their needs
What is most
important to them
now?
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
Physiological Survival (water, food, air)Physiological Survival (water, food, air)
Self-ActualizationSelf-Actualization
Esteem From OthersEsteem From Others
Safety, Shelter, SecuritySafety, Shelter, Security
Love and BelongingLove and Belonging
Self-EsteemSelf-Esteem

Hankering for a burger?

Consumers
seek to
maximize
gain
Be accepted (admired, envied)
by others
Make things easier, simpler, less effort
Have more fun
Be stronger, faster, smarter,
richer, sexier...
The higher you aim for in their needs,
the more they value your offer.

Businesses
want to
get rid of
pain
Reduce costs, waste, risk
Stay out of jail, avoid fines
(regulatory compliance)
Increase margins, profts,
market share
Eliminate competition
The lower you aim for in their needs,
the more they value your offer.

Look for Right Place – Right Time – Right Fit
Right Fit = How much value does your solution create for your client?
Right Time = Are they in the looking zone?
Right Place = How does your solution solve their problem?

The Business Model Canvas

The Value Proposition
What is the
“job to be
done”?
1
What is the
gain of
completing
the job?
2
What is the
pain of not
completing
the job?
3
What triggers
them to take
action now?
4

“Jobs to be done”
A change the customer wants to create
• a problem to solve
• a desire to fulfill
• a need to satisfy
• a task to complete
What do they want to change
and why do they want to change it

What is their
“job to be done”?
Gains for completing
What’s encouraging completion?
Pains for not completing
What’s blocking completion?
Functional - Emotional - Financial

Map the main job to be done
+ the gains for completion
+ the pains for non-completion

Now consider
your offer...
• What are your gain creators
benefits which enhance the gains for
completing the job
• What are your pain relievers
benefits which alleviate the pains
Functional - Emotional - Financial

Map your Gain Creators and Pain Relievers

What benefit is most important to your
customer?
Which gain creator
or pain reliever
is most important to them?
This is your
VALUE
PROPOSITION

Choose the most important Gain Creator or Pain Reliever = Value Proposition (VP)
VP
VP

Create Your Value Proposition Statement
We (action verb) _______________________________________
(Specific target customer) _______________________________
Who wants/needs (job to be done) ________________________
In order to (gain creator or pain reliever) ____________________
“The Scaleup Project helps
new innovation-driven ventures
to enter and dominate their first market
by reducing risk and improving the ability to execute.”
2

Part II - Finding Your First Customers
So far this has been a mental exercise full of hypothesis and
assumptions...
• How do you find your “ideal customers”?
• How do you validate your value proposition?
• How do you find those people who are ready to buy?
Presented by Sovita Chander, Marketing Strategist
and Co-Founder, StrategyFest.com and The Scaleup Project
on Thursday, October 24, 2017. For info: yesmontreal.ca

Contact me!
Davender Gupta
Venture Strategist and Co-Founder
The Scaleup Project
StrategyFest.com
davender.com
facebook.com/coachdavender
linkedin.com/in/coachdavender
davender@davender.com

Thank you to
YES Montreal
for hosting the
Value Selling
Series
www.yesmontreal.ca

Format derived from Alexander Osterwalder's "Business Model Generation" www.businessmodelgeneration.com and used under Creative Commons. Some concepts derived from Steve Blank "How To Build A Startup"
Content by Davender Gupta www.davender.com - coach@davender.com Icons by Patricia Carignan www.patriciacarignan.com All rights reserved. Permission to distribute CC3.0 BY-NC-SA rev 20130820 / 20171010
Key Partners
Who are the key partners,
suppliers, collaborators and
other stakeholders who have a
direct impact on your ability to
create and deliver value?
Who is the competition? What
are the alternatives? How to
align the competition and
alternatives so that they work
with you?
Key Activities
Main deliverables for the project
(including timelines)
Main recurring deliverables and
activities (after launch)
The Key Activities listed should
connect with VP-CR-DC-RS
Value Proposition
What is the decision trigger for the
client?
FRICTION
What is the pain?
What is the ache?
What is broken?
What is the cost of the
pain/ache/break?
BENEFIT
What is the benefit to solve the pain or
ease the ache?
What is the value-added of our solution
to the user/customer? (relate each
feature to a pain or ache)
DECISION TRIGGER
What is the decision trigger for the
customer?
What is the unique value proposition
that "disrupts" the user/customer's
experience for the better?
Customer
Relationships
How do we GET – KEEP – GROW
our customer base?
How do we build a tribe around our
value proposition?
How do we engage the evangelists
and promoters?
What are our communication
strategies?
Customer Segments
Who are the "1%" who recognize the
value of your offer and who are ready
to commit.
IDENTIFICATION
For whom are we creating value?
Who are our most important customers
to go after first?
Who are the users?
Who are the payers?
Who are the stakeholders?
Who are the decision makers?
DESCRIPTION
What are their characteristics?
(demographics)
What are their qualities? (values)
Describe as archetypesKey Resources
What key resources do you need to
launch and operate the business?
The Key Resources listed should
connect with VP-CR-DC-RS-KA
Distribution Channels
How do we deliver value?
- products
- services
- physical channels
- virtual channels
- each step of the buying process
Cost Structure
What are the most important costs involved in launching and
operating the business model? Fixed-Variable-Marginal
Cost of customer acquisition?
Where can you restructure to lower or optimize costs?
Revenue Streams
What are customers ready/willing to pay for?
How much? How? When? Long Term Value of customer?
How much does each Revenue Stream contribute to overall revenues?
Which Revenue Streams are growing, mature or declining?
The Business Model Canvas

The Value Proposition Canvas
Gain Creators
Describe how your products and services create customer gains.
How do they create benefits your customer expects, desires or would be surprised
by, including functional utility, social gains, positive emotions, and cost savings?
Pain Relievers
Do they…
Create savings that make your customer happy?
(e.g. in terms of time, money and effort, …)
Produce outcomes your customer expects or that go
beyond their expectations?
(e.g. better quality level, more of something, less of something, …)
Copy or outperform current solutions that delight your
customer?
(e.g. regarding specific features, performance, quality, …)
Make your customer’s job or life easier?
(e.g. flatter learning curve, usability, accessibility, more services, lower
cost of ownership, …)
Create positive social consequences that your
customer desires?
(e.g. makes them look good, produces an increase in power, status, …)
Do something customers are looking for?
(e.g. good design, guarantees, specific or more features, …)
Fulfill something customers are dreaming about?
(e.g. help big achievements, produce big reliefs, …)
Produce positive outcomes matching your customers
success and failure criteria?
(e.g. better performance, lower cost, …)
Help make adoption easier?
(e.g. lower cost, less investments, lower risk, better quality,
performance, design, …)
Rank each gain your products and services create according to its relevance to your
customer. Is it substantial or insignificant? For each gain indicate how often it occurs.
Describe how your products and services alleviate customer pains. How do they
eliminate or reduce negative emotions, undesired costs and situations, and risks
your customer experiences or could experience before, during, and after getting
the job done?
Do they…
Produce savings?
(e.g. in terms of time, money, or efforts, …)
Make your customers feel better?
(e.g. kills frustrations, annoyances, things that give them a headache, …)
Fix underperforming solutions?
(e.g. new features, better performance, better quality, …)
Put an end to difficulties and challenges your
customers encounter?
(e.g. make things easier, helping them get done, eliminate resistance, …)
Wipe out negative social consequences your
customers encounter or fear?
(e.g. loss of face, power, trust, or status, …)
Eliminate risks your customers fear?
(e.g. financial, social, technical risks, or what could go awfully wrong, …)
Help your customers better sleep at night?
(e.g. by helping with big issues, diminishing concerns, or eliminating worries, …)
Limit or eradicate common mistakes customers make?
(e.g. usage mistakes, …)
Get rid of barriers that are keeping your customer
from adopting solutions?
(e.g. lower or no upfront investment costs, flatter learning curve, less
resistance to change, …)
Rank each pain your products and services kill according to their intensity
for your customer. Is it very intense or very light?
For each pain indicate how often it occurs. Risks your customer experiences or
could experience before, during, and after getting the job done?
Products & Services
List all the products and services your value proposition is built around.
Which products and services do you offer that help your customer get either a
functional, social, or emotional job done, or help him/her satisfy basic needs?
Which ancillary products and services help your customer perform the roles of:
Buyer
(e.g. products and services that help customers compare offers,
decide, buy, take delivery of a product or service, …)
Co-creator
(e.g. products and services that help customers co-design
solutions, otherwise contribute value to the solution, …)
Transferrer
(e.g. products and services that help customers dispose of
a product, transfer it to others, or resell, …)
Products and services may either by tangible (e.g. manufactured goods, face-to-
face customer service), digital/virtual (e.g. downloads, online recommendations),
intangible (e.g. copyrights, quality assurance), or financial (e.g. investment funds,
financing services).
Rank all products and services according to their importance to your customer.
Are they crucial or trivial to your customer?
Gains
Describe the benefits your customer expects, desires or would be surprised by.
This includes functional utility, social gains, positive emotions, and cost savings.
Pains
Customer Job(s)
Describe negative emotions, undesired costs and situations, and risks that your
customer experiences or could experience before, during, and after getting the
job done.
What does your customer find too costly?
(e.g. takes a lot of time, costs too much money, requires substantial efforts, …)
What makes your customer feel bad?
(e.g. frustrations, annoyances, things that give them a headache, …)
How are current solutions underperforming for
your customer?
(e.g. lack of features, performance, malfunctioning, …)
What are the main difficulties and challenges
your customer encounters?
(e.g. understanding how things work, difficulties getting things done,
resistance, …)
What negative social consequences does your
customer encounter or fear?
(e.g. loss of face, power, trust, or status, …)
What risks does your customer fear?
(e.g. financial, social, technical risks, or what could go awfully wrong, …)
What’s keeping your customer awake at night?
(e.g. big issues, concerns, worries, …)
What common mistakes does your customer make?
(e.g. usage mistakes, …)
What barriers are keeping your customer from
adopting solutions?
(e.g. upfront investment costs, learning curve, resistance to change, …)
Describe what a specific customer segment is trying to get done. It could be the tasks
they are trying to perform and complete, the problems they are trying to solve, or the
needs they are trying to satisfy.
What functional jobs are you helping your customer get done?
(e.g. perform or complete a specific task, solve a specific problem, …)
What social jobs are you helping your customer get done?
(e.g. trying to look good, gain power or status, …)
What emotional jobs are you helping your customer get done?
(e.g. esthetics, feel good, security, …)
What basic needs are you helping your customer satisfy?
(e.g. communication, sex, …)
Besides trying to get a core job done, your customer performs ancillary jobs in differ-
ent roles. Describe the jobs your customer is trying to get done as:
Buyer (e.g. trying to look good, gain power or status, …)
Co-creator (e.g. esthetics, feel good, security, …)
Transferrer (e.g. products and services that help customers dispose
of a product, transfer it to others, or resell, …)
Rank each job according to its significance to your customer. Is it
crucial or is it trivial? For each job indicate how often it occurs.
Outline in which specific context a job
is done, because that may impose
constraints or limitations.
(e.g. while driving, outside, …)
Which savings would make your customer happy?
(e.g. in terms of time, money and effort, …)
What outcomes does your customer expect and what
would go beyond his/her expectations?
(e.g. quality level, more of something, less of something, …)
How do current solutions delight your customer?
(e.g. specific features, performance, quality, …)
What would make your customer’s job or life easier?
(e.g. flatter learning curve, more services, lower cost of ownership, …)
What positive social consequences does your
customer desire?
(e.g. makes them look good, increase in power, status, …)
What are customers looking for?
(e.g. good design, guarantees, specific or more features, …)
What do customers dream about?
(e.g. big achievements, big reliefs, …)
How does your customer measure success and failure?
(e.g. performance, cost, …)
What would increase the likelihood of adopting a solution?
(e.g. lower cost, less investments, lower risk, better quality, performance,
design, …)
Rank each gain according to its relevance to
your customer.
Is it substantial or is it insignificant?
For each gain indicate how often it occurs.
Rank each pain according to the intensity it
represents for your customer.
Is it very intense or is it very light.?
For each pain indicate how often it occurs.
On:
Iteration:
Designed by:Designed for:
Day Month Year
No.
Customer Segment
www.businessmodelgeneration.com
Use in Conjunction with the Business Model Canvas Copyright of Business Model Foundry GmbH
Value Proposition
Create one for each Customer Segment in your Business Model

Credits:
• Value Proposition Canvas: businessmodelgeneration.com
• Images: Flickr. com used under Creative Commons licence

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