In this episode, I’m walking you through four essential questions I use to validate an offer before bringing it to market. If you’ve ever launched something that didn’t convert the way you hoped—or you’re in the process of refining an idea - this episode will help you pressure-test your offer before you invest more time, energy, or money.

 

I break down how to make sure your ideal customer actually recognizes the problem your offer solves, why using their language (not yours) is critical for conversion, and how to tell if this is a problem they’ve already tried—and failed—to fix on their own. These insights help you move beyond assumptions and into real market alignment.

 

I also talk about the importance of desire and delivery—making sure your audience truly wants the outcome you’re offering and that the format of your offer supports fast, meaningful transformation. Whether you’re a course creator, membership owner, or coach, these questions will help you create offers that feel clear, compelling, and easy to say yes to.

 

 

If your audience doesn’t clearly recognize the problem, they won’t buy—no matter how good your solution is.

 

Using the exact words your audience uses builds trust and makes your offer instantly feel relevant and understood.

 

An offer must solve a problem people want solved and be delivered in a way that feels simple, focused, and transformation-driven.

 

Connect with Teresa on Website, (Grow, Launch, Sell), Sign up to Teresa's email list,  Instagram, LinkedIn, or Facebook, Subscribe to my Youtube

 

Transcript

If you've been watching these videos for a while, you'll know that I will often talk about a failed launch. Doesn't mean that you have a terrible product or you need to change the offer. However, in today's video I want to talk to you about how do you know that you actually have an offer that will sell, and I'm gonna give you four questions that you can ask yourself to validate your offer and be confident that it's the right one for you and your audience.

If we've not met, my name is Theresa Heath Waring and I help course creators, membership owners, and coaches grow their online business. And honestly, I geek out on this stuff. I love it. I joke that I watch launches like other people watch Netflix series. And this is what I eat, sleep, and breathe. So it brings me so much joy to bring the podcast and the YouTube videos and give you real strategic, tactical advice on how you can grow your online business.

Before we get started with today's [00:01:00] episode, I'm gonna ask a big favor. Is there any chance. That you could go and hit the subscribe button if you're watching this on YouTube or hit the follow button. If you are listening to this podcast, wherever you are listening, I would be so appreciative. Creating content is one of the things that I love the most, and being able to come every single week and bring you free content that helps you grow your business is something I adore, and I would just love it if you could just help me back just a little bit by hitting that subscribe button.

Let's get started with the episode. I have four questions that I'm gonna walk you through that I want you to consider either when looking at your current offer or when you are considering your next offer. Question number one, what specific problem does your offer solve? And, and this is the key bit. Does your perfect customer know that they have the problem?

Now, you might think that that's a bit of a strange question. 'cause surely if you're creating an offer, it's because your customers have got a problem and you are helping them [00:02:00] fix that problem. However, I have seen time and time again, people create something that they want to create and put together an offer of things that they think, yes, this is what my customers need.

The truth is it might be what your customers need, however, your customers might not know that they need it, and to try and sell something to someone that doesn't even know that they need it, you are starting with an uphill battle straight away. So, for instance, one of the examples I give on this is I had a client in the past that helped women who were in peri and menopause stages.

And when we look at this question, this is such an interesting one, because a woman of whatever age might not know that she is potentially going into perimenopause. So if she doesn't know that she's going into perimenopause, how does she know that she might be there and that this lovely client has [00:03:00] a problem that will help her fix it?

So the key thing here is. Do they know they have the problem? Now, one of the ways in which you can look at this is when you are an expert in your field, you tend to know the words and the shortcuts and the, you know, the quick answer to the thing. So for instance, my lovely coach that I know who helps women in Perry and menopause stages, she might know by someone telling her her symptoms that yes, you're definitely in perimenopause.

But they might not know that. So for instance, when she talks about her offer, if she was just talking about, I help women in perimenopause, you are going to have a whole audience who would think, well, that's not me. I'm not in there. But what they do know is the problems that they have. So instead, I'm using this as a very literal example, but instead of her necessarily talking about.

Perimenopause. She might talk about the symptoms that someone has, which they can go, oh yeah, I have those symptoms. Oh, yes, [00:04:00] I have those problems. So. Are we trying to help our customers solve a problem that they don't know they've got, or give them the solution to something that they're not? They didn't know that that is the solution that they needed.

So let me remind you of that first question. What specific problem does your offer solve and does your customer know they've got it? Question number two, have I heard my audience talk about this in their words? Not mine. Again, this is kind of attached to question number one, but this is super, super important because we as experts like to fill in the gaps.

Okay? So someone will say to me that they are having a problem selling their offer, and I might be able to see really quickly that it's their launch mechanism Now. I've just used the term launch mechanism, which they might be like, I dunno what the hell you're talking about. And if I talk about offering a service that talks about helping your launch mechanism.

You might not know [00:05:00] what on earth I'm talking about. So what have I heard my customers actually said in their words, not mine. One of the things that I encourage you to do is to actually have conversations with people, whether it's on Zoom, whether it's a video call, whether it's just you picking up the phone, whether it's in person.

Listen to what they have to say, what are their problems? And one of the things that I have to be really careful of, so I try and record whenever I do this, is I will really easily put my own words in instead of using their words. And the truth is, if we want an offer to be attractive to your perfect customer, then we need to make sure we are using their words.

So if your customer or someone you think, right, this offer I have in mind will be. So perfect for them. If they aren't able to articulate in their own words what they need help with, then you are going to have a real disconnect between explaining the author and explaining why it can help them. Again, this might seem particularly obvious, but if they're [00:06:00] not saying they have the problem.

Then they're definitely not searching for a solution for that problem. Question number three, is this something they've already tried to fix and they've struggled fixing? A lot of these questions might feel like I am stating the obvious, but I promise you I have looked at so many offers and offers of people who are so passionate about the thing that they want to present to the world and they want to offer.

And I've looked at it and thought, I don't think this is going to sell. Not because they're not brilliant and not because what they're trying to do isn't brilliant, but because they've created something that actually isn't something that their customers are asking for. So although these questions seem obvious, they're really important to ask yourself.

So, as I've already said, question number three, is this something that they're trying to fix and have struggled trying to fix? It's one thing knowing you have a problem, it's an entirely different thing, wanting to fix that problem. And you might think, well, that's just stupid. If they've got a problem, [00:07:00] surely they'll want to fix.

I can tell you as a woman who is 46 years old, who's a mom, who's a stepmom, who's a dog mom, who runs my own business, there are a million things going on in my world at any one time, as I'm sure that is in yours. And just because there is a problem does not necessarily mean that's a high enough priority in my life in order for me to go and fix it.

So is this something that they want to fix? Because again, I've seen people create something or want to create something and they're like, this is a problem. But actually no one is asking them to fix it. And even if we know they need to fix it, even if we are so passionate about the thing going, but their life would be so much easier, but they would do this or they would earn more or they would feel happy, or whatever it might be.

It doesn't mean they want to fix it or it doesn't mean they want to fix it bad enough. So have they tried to fix it and are they struggling to fix it? And question number four, if I said this offer out loud. Would someone say, IE, your [00:08:00] perfect customer say, yes, I want this. Would they be so emphatic of, oh, I need this in my life?

Because if they do, then great. That is the goal. That is what we want. Now, when it comes to pricing the offer and if they'll pay money for it, that is a different matter. However. At this point, would they say, I need that. I really, really need that. 'cause if they do, then great. Okay, so those are the four questions.

Let me recap them for you. Question one, what specific problem does it solve and does your customer know that they actually have that problem? Question two, have I heard my customers talk about this in their own words, not mine. Question three, is this something that they are trying to fix and struggling to fix?

And question four, if I was to say out loud what my offer is, would my ideal customer go? Yes, I want that. There's a couple more points I want to make that are super important before I wrap up this episode. Format matters. Now let me explain. Let's say you [00:09:00] are a. Service where you offer SEO help or I'll help you write your website, something like that.

And you want to create an offer that helps people write what goes on their website, and you decide that the offer is going to talk 'em through what needs to go on a website is going to help them map out the text and get them to write the text. So at the end of the transformation, they have a. Website full of perfect texts that they've done themselves, rather than paying someone else do it.

Let's say that's your offer, okay, and you've done all those qualified questions and you're like, yes, this is something people want. Then let's say you decide you want to do a membership for that offer, that offer. Is very possibly not going to succeed. Now, it's not that there's anything wrong in the offer, per se, because you've already done that groundwork.

You know people want it, but it's in the method and the delivery of that offer. If I take something like writing copy for a website and I take the mechanism of a [00:10:00] membership, a membership is about a long-term thing. Now, whether you join a membership for a month, two months, five months, 12 years, it doesn't matter.

The whole concept of a membership is that you pay monthly and you are in it for as long as you need it. Now, someone creating their website doesn't necessarily want to think, I'm gonna have to be in a membership for six, 12 months in order to write the copy for my website. What they really want is to have that copy in and done, because even though your offer and the website copy that you are talking about.

Is your core business. It's not your customers. Your customer is doing whatever it is they do, and their website. And their website copy is just one tiny part of their entire business that they've put together and that they're working on. So when you think about the offer in itself, great, yes, your customers might want help putting together copy that goes on their site.

When we think about the mechanism in which you decide to deliver that offer, IE [00:11:00] something like a membership. That doesn't sit. Now, if you came to me and said, I'm going to do an offer that is a four week program or a four week course where they follow me along and they work with me, and at the end of it they have all their copy done.

Brilliant. That offer sounds great because it's matching the importance and the time that someone wants to spend on doing that thing. Someone doesn't want to think that. For six months, they're still gonna be looking at the copy on their website, and once they've done it, they don't need to be in it. So your churn rate on your membership will be massive.

Like I said, yes, those questions are super, super important, but the delivery method is also very, very important. And one final point, your offer doesn't have to be ginormous. One of the things that we have come to learn in. Looking at AI and how this is impacting the online world is that actually content is everywhere.

[00:12:00] And what people want more than anything isn't more content. They want the transformation, and in all honesty, they want it as fast and as easy as possible. So where in the past and maybe a few years back, it would've been super important to have many, many lessons that went on for a long time to feel like we were getting good value.

Now we just want the transformation. So if you can deliver the transformation in a shorter, more succinct method. It doesn't mean you have to charge less for it. It doesn't mean that it's any less of an offer. It just means that they're getting it quicker and easier. And in fact, in some cases people will pay considerably more for that.

When I talk about creating the offer, it doesn't have to be this big, massive thing. It can be something very small and succinct and yet super, super powerful and also. The transformation can be very specific. It doesn't have to be that I'm gonna help you do 600 million things. I'm gonna help transform your business [00:13:00] and your life and your style and your health, and your like.

No. It could literally be if the problem is enough and is strong enough and they want to fix it, it can literally help them fix one thing, and your offer can be as simple as that. So I urge you to go back to your existing offers and ask yourself those questions. And if you've got an offer that isn't selling, maybe it's one of those things, maybe you just need to tweak it and it's not a case of throwing the entire thing in the bin.

Maybe you just need to go through those questions and understand them and make sure they fit to make sure that that your offer is something that your customers really want. If you've enjoyed this episode, I would love it if you could share it with someone that you think will find this useful. Honestly, creating this content is one of the things I love doing the most, and you would be doing me a massive favor by sharing it with someone that you think could benefit from it.