Exchanging products or services for money. Simple, right? Until the end of the month.
Since Traction is about scale, how do you create sustainable sales processes? If your product is new, how do you find your first early adopter other than your mom and your followers?
Rely on your family and friends to talk about your product, but align your outreach policy with an aggressive sales goal and track your metrics.
To get off to a good start, review your business model. Read about Inside Sales . Find out how to get your customers to navigate their buying journey more autonomously and check if they are compatible with the solution you offer before spending time, breath and investment.
Offer proof, make the process less bureaucratic, if your service is not self-service (yet), make your salespeople specialists in the field.
Don’t let the sale end at the contract. Take care of your customers and see if you deliver what you promised, get feedback and improve. Change.
Dr. House:
By monetizing the delivery and performance of tests, Dr. House’s business could be more easily sold on the Internet.
Special fields for physicians documenting their samples could be filled out, printed and submitted with an online payment.
Mr. McDonald:
Don’t make me think. Just make the magic packages arrive when they’re needed.
Mr. McDonald could create ordering systems or manage inventory fairly with his suppliers.
Mrs. Engines:
E-commerce sales are conversions, right? But there are many paths that lead to the buy button.
Analyzing them incessantly and having incredible support to solve specific doubts about engines will make sales a more natural process for Mrs. Engines.
14. Affiliate Program
It sounds like an “earn money without leaving home” ad, but it’s not.
Affiliate programs are simply a way to spray sales, using your own customer base to sell more in exchange for some privileges such as discounts, services, etc.
It’s like giving someone permission to sell or list something of yours in exchange for something else. A tactic widely used in e-commerce and information products. Do you know the seller’s discount? That’s what we’re talking about.
If you think this is similar to the viral marketing we talked about above, you’re right!
But contrary to the one-to-one recommendation, the affiliate program wants the intermediary to get more users and make it a lucrative activity, even paying monthly for sending leads and conversions.
Think coupon sites, loyalty programs, and content aggregators. Even sponsored newsletters have parameterized URLs so you (and many other people) can use the link to buy something.
Dr. House:
Some affiliate programs in the health field have more connotations. If you had an email in the early 2000s, you must have received a message to donate organs, be cured by plants or something of that nature.
The most ethical recommendation is to create loyalty plans for basic exam routines, such as checkups at the beginning of the year, having banners with parameters on health sites, among others.
Mr. McDonald:
To sell to food franchises, there is nothing better than having sales representatives in a good affiliate program. You just need to be careful with the percentages.
Since the role of the hamburger is that of a commodity, it is necessary to guarantee interesting profit levels for Mr. McDonald and his affiliate friend.
Mrs. Engines:
A good discount URL can do wonders for any kind of e-commerce, even search engines. Big players like Magazina Luiza have already let their affiliates create their own hotsites with a selection of products , giving a percentage of the sale to the aggregator.
15. Existing platforms
Focus on platforms that already exist like Facebook, Instagram, Play Store, etc. to build audiences and increase growth.
Of course, there is a big difference between using existing platforms to grow and relying entirely on others. Never choose the latter.
Startup darling Slack started out like this, but it no longer relies on it to get installed.
Note: You can create products with expiration dates within the platforms, you will have no problems.
Seasonal apps that are either uninstalled or made to run on Facebook are welcome and make the internet a better place. Or almost better.
This makes changes to the timing, algorithm and API key of the application you chose more fragile. Monitor your investments carefully to avoid losing out.
Ah… and the examples:
Dr. House:
If there isn’t a lab app to accompany the results, there should be one. And if there is, it needs to be well positioned in stores.
Mr. McDonald:
Use social media and take advantage of all the informality of the product to fit into memes. Think Burger King vs. McDonalds.
Mrs. Engines:
Be where your audience is. If there are groups about industrial engines and artisanal wells, join them, but don’t treat the audience as a tactic.
Everyone knows that member who just posts a link and walks away, and nobody likes that anymore.
16. Trade show
It could be translated as “sector events” but we would be confused with the next point (17). Events. There is a reason for making this differentiation.
Trade shows are popular business fairs, packed with stands and products on offer. More than that, it is a unique opportunity to benchmark against the competition, interact with customers and get in touch with companies in niche sectors.
Remember to prepare not only the stand, but also your service and the purpose of being there. Without business prospects or a good audience, do not invest.
Dr. House:
There is a world of medical conferences. Choose the best ones and in the specialties in which it is possible to give the best diagnoses. Bring medical cases, good numbers and logistics options so that the efforts are not in vain.
Mr. McDonald:
Food fairs should be optimal, but events in general always have some food options. Proving that you can make that meeting and still find your hot lunch can save you from a bad day.
Mrs. Engines:
Mrs. Motores does not only live off e-commerce events, but also off partnerships with small and medium-sized industries to showcase the efficiency of products on the spot.
17. Events
The idea here is to create your own event (or sponsor a large part of it), from breakfasts with industry players to conferences with an international presence.
Remember that organizing an event, no matter how small, says a lot about your company to the market.
You can’t allow people to focus on talking about themselves. Generate relevant discussions.
Test presentations in advance to ensure a good performance and networking. It’s your reputation that’s at stake.
Dr. House:
Many doctors meet to discuss diagnoses. Presenting tests and associations that move the community can be something that is done frequently and helps generate insights for the product itself.
Mr. McDonald:
Who doesn’t love gastronomy? Even for the B2B market, moving the end public around products can be sensational and generate a craze for that sandwich that isn’t cold.
Mrs. Engines:
Events to discuss energy efficiency and demonstrate motors range from small industries to academia. Don’t forget to record the best moments.
18. Conferences
It sounds like more of the same, but it’s not. Conferences are opportunities to demonstrate your authority and embody your brand. They range from webinars on a white wall in your home to a TED.
Again, no one likes to be told only about themselves, much less using adjectives. What do you have to say to the market? What story do you have to tell? If you are good, there is a better chance that they will trust your product, naturally.
Dr. House:
What case intrigued the lab the most? Share it. Explain how you arrived at the diagnosis. Everyone loves a good medical story. Use other channels to spread the word about the conference and the expertise.
Mr. McDonald:
Food is culture and a human need. At some point, we are all minimally interested in it.
It is a challenge for Mr. McDonald’s to cut back on its market share and to promote interesting discussions: what is the future of food consumption? How do nutritionists, food chain owners and press critics position themselves in this regard?
Trying to answer these questions, making the answers viral and adjusting products to emerging needs are possible outcomes of this effort.
Mrs. Engines:
Conferences for a small group of people or for industries that have just purchased a product. Traction is not just about acquiring, but also maintaining customers/users.
19. Community building
Have you heard that if you use something for free, you are the product? It sounds Machiavellian, but that’s how Wikipedia works.
Building a community is not just about the open source movement or the number of users whose exposure justifies the investment in ads, as on Facebook and its 1.6 billion users.
If you’ve ever been in a serious fight over iOS vs. Android, you’ll understand what community building is all about: a legion of users wrapped up in a product.
That packaging has clear communication, incredible branding and a culture about their services.
Dr. House:
Doctors have their own communities based on their specialties, clinics and hospitals. It is important for laboratories to be able to deliver more than just reports, for example, creating diagnostic discussion groups or having an agenda that adapts to that of the specialist, rather than being imposed, among others.
Mr. McDonald:
Like the market, especially of this selection, morocco mobile database Mr. McDonald can take a gastronomic tour of all the restaurants that choose his packaging. Just imagine the T-shirts.
Mrs. Engines:
Remember the groups and discussion forums discussed in the other channels? Ms. Motors can start mediating discussions and become a reference among them. Many communities do not need to be created from scratch, but they do need to be organized around some authority on the subject.
Yes. You’ve made it to the end. These were the 19 Traction channels.
Where do I start?
With all this content, that is one of the first questions to be asked.
First, set aside some time to brainstorm those nineteen channels.
If you never have time to think about that, there’s something wrong here. You need to have time in a working day to think about how you’re going to get and keep users. Otherwise, your company won’t be ready to grow.
Don’t create limitations in your brainstorming on the internet and tracking . We all know that we never have enough budget or contacts, but that doesn’t mean that now is not the time.
For each idea, ask if the competition is using the same channel, or if you have capital to invest or a better idea to differentiate yourself. If not, the channel is saturated and you have 18 more ideas to explore.
Another puzzle is whether you will achieve quick results or whether they will be sustained over time. If the biggest event in the sector is next year and you don’t have the money to rent a stand, you may not need one now.
Content marketing, for example, is a long-term investment, but a medium to low investment, which gains volume over time.
If you never start,
Finally, select at least three ideas that seem promising . This will only help you test your theories by trying out the channels. And what will determine the permanence of one action or another is the CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost).
There is no expiration date for Traction channels or for the continuity of actions that ensure a good CAC channel.
Be careful not to get lost in the variables. There are inconvenient truths in every channel and many times your sales aren’t moving forward not because of the color of the buy button, but because the product wasn’t well-labeled in the first place.
Your goal will always need to be the most efficient and scalable issue to get real users, without resorting to easy solutions.
But don’t get discouraged. Take on the challenge aqb directory and remember that various Traction channels like events, conferences and social media take a while to happen.
The momentum is great, but it is necessary to continue building it so as not to be known only as “that company with a great action” and that keeps its users.
Keep that in mind, pen, paper and game on!