SFR 292: To Customize, Or Not To Customize

The offer is a two-way agreement, not a beg-session to get anyone to buy from you.    Here's when I STOP customizing my offers…   My friends, I'm pumped for this - grab a pen and paper  - 'cause this can simplify your business.    A while back, there was an interesting post in my group…   Here's what went down…   Someone purchased a service, product or whatever, and after they bought it - they didn't like the fulfillment.    So they went back to the seller and said, "Hey, Mr. Seller,  I don't like this..." and the seller said, "Oh, so sorry about that," and gave their money back.   And this actually made the customer mad.    I was a little bit confused by this response because something similar happened to me...   There was a guy who paid me for a one-hour consultation, (I don't really sell that anymore... ), but he scheduled it during the speeches at Funnel Hacking Live.     And so I was like, "Oh crap, sorry about that."    I reached back out and said, "Hey I'm so sorry,” and I just refunded his money.    I was like, "Hey, here you go."    Here’s the thing, the refund didn’t make him happy - in fact, guy was livid and made tons of nasty posts all over the place.   The dude finally got so loud that I blocked him    Originally, I was confused by his reaction so I reached out and asked...   Why are you mad that I gave you your money back? What's wrong with that? Our call was scheduled for a time that I couldn’t do…?    Why do you think I’d wanna get on a call for an hour with you after you've been lighting me up across the whole internet?    … that's crazy!    I'm NOT obligated to spend time with you. I can give you your money back and I no longer have an obligation, right?   So, let’s go back to the post…   THE CUSTOMER ISN’T ALWAYS RIGHT! The guy was super frustrated... he was so mad about getting a refund, and I was like, "I guess there's a pattern here."    So let me tell you exactly how I respond…   It was a good enough response that Mr. Russell actually liked it.    Here’s how I started…    After digging into this, I kinda understand the story.    Now you paid somebody...      You didn't like it You brought it up     … and instead of getting more as you wanted, they refunded you.   I said…    Buying is a two-way relationship; I create an offer, set a price and a value, and use the offer as the anchor of the relationship, NOT the money.   The offer is the anchor, NOT the money.    This is a *BIG* mistake a lot of entrepreneurs make.    So let me teach you something really cool here that will help simplify your business...    When a customer uses their money as the anchor of a relationship, it forces the seller to dance at the customer's will.   This violates the very first step of my offer creation formula - The Who.  Just because someone has money doesn't mean I should sell them.    That's NOT the only qualifier for you to sell to somebody.    The offer is my agreement with the customer. If I keep changing the offer to each person, it equals a dizzying level of customization. That's WHY I don't change my offers for each person. If so I charge significant levels higher.   In my mind, it sounds like the seller is just doing what they thought was fair, and like myself was unwilling to change their offer, so, they refund you - that's not spitting in your face.    The customer is NOT always right.   Whoever started that whole thing, "The customer is always right,"  in my opinion, that person has NEVER had a successful business!    Or they worked in an industry that was 100% customization, you know what I mean (and even then the customer is not always right)?    'Cause…    The customer is NOT always right. I don't want to fight the doctor if I'm about to go in surgery    ‘Doctor, cut here and not here."     The customer is ALWAYS right????    That's a stupid phrase… overall, it's just NOT true.    And a lot of your businesses will be simplified by removing that belief and that vernacular…    "The customer's always right..." No, they're not, you are too - that's why you're the seller.   An offer is a two-way agreement, you can't keep customizing the offer per person - that's why we have a value ladder.    HOW TO IMPROVE CUSTOMER SERVICE BY SAYING ‘NO!’   One of the major reasons why you don't customize everything is because of how hard it is on your actual business.    It is hard for me to ALWAY be changing the offer  - because it makes it hard for me to create business systems.    You have to understand the major functions of a business - and there are a lot of different theories/ competing beliefs around this…    But I'm just going to draw the major functions of any business.   The first function of any business is to generate a lead, obviously.   Then you have to be able to convert the lead.    There's a lot of great books with different views... “There are varying points... there are four points. No, there are five points of any business. No, there's six points of any business.”    However, they're all around the same area for EVERY business.   This is the reason why funnels work for any company. Every company has to be able to…    Generate a lead   Convert the lead   Deliver/fulfill on the purchase   Upsell   (And then some people add...) Retain   Again, various places have differing opinions, but it's basically that…    A business is nothing more than a series of systems that generate and fulfills a lead.    *THAT’S IT*   … it's NOT some fishy hokey-pokey thing.    It has nothing to do with some clever slogan... I don't have a mission statement, 'cause  “Urrrgh!”   Anyway...   For example: Say I go generate a lead by creating an offer     Let's say that I'm selling some widget…    I need to go generate a lead who is most likely and has a predisposition to purchase that widget.    If I continually change the widget I have to continually re-set up new lead machines.    One of the reasons why some of my webinars have done so well in the past and I've only touched them once, (and it's been over a year and a half since I've touched one of the largest ones)...    The reason why that works is that I'm not sitting here continually changing the offer.    I change it for a while and I'm like, "Okay, this feels like a safe place for it to land!"    … I stop touching the offer.    *DON’T TOUCH THE OFFER*   My job is no longer to keep tweaking the offer.    My role and my business changes to finding more people to fit the offer rather than continually changing the offer.    PRODUCT CUSTOMIZATION - WHEN TO *STOP*   Most businesses have a good enough offer to…    Make A LOT of money.    Have consistent purchases.    But as marketers, we tend to get so focused on changing the offer that we forget about the next step…   Take it from the guy who's the self-proclaimed offer guy, stop changing your offer so much.    PHASE #2   Find the person who fits the offer - that's way easier than constantly changing your offer.    So back to my Facebook Group…    This guy gets frustrated and says, "Oh my gosh. You're not willing to change the offer for me? And you gave my money back to me?"    Like, “YEAH!” (ALL CAPS)    First of all, that's fair.    Second of all, it's smart on the business owner’s side.    Any time as any level of real genuine customization, it sucks!   That’s one of the reasons why a lot of entrepreneurs feel like their business wheels are spinning - they don't have a business.    You can't make a business where it's constant 24/7 100% pure true customization for every person that comes in.   Now, if your business is…    "I build custom sales funnels for people."     "I do custom body jobs in a car shop."      … there's still a system you can build around that.    I'm talking about when you're NOT customizing on purpose, and you keep changing all the stuff inside your offer.    After a while...    STOP!    It's extremely hard to create a consistent powerful lead machine when your offer's changing all the time. It's very hard to convert if your offer isn’t consistent...    I’ll change my offer for a while… but after a certain point, it's like…    *STOP*.   The next phase is to become good at finding people who fit the offer, instead of convincing EVERYBODY that they fit your offer.    (I'm hoping this is not too techy)   I want to…   Generate a lead under the lens of those who have a predisposition to purchase the offer.   Keep converting, (obviously), under the lens of the offer itself.   Fulfill on what they purchased and *ONLY THAT* -  it’s a two-way agreement, right?    Keep up-selling people... but it's still anchoring off the offer.    The offer is NOT just a marketing tool - for me, it acts as an anchor.   Think of it this way...    (I hope I'm not talking in circles here with this, but this is such a key thing!)   HOW TO IMPROVE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE BY FINDING THE ‘WHO!   I've had several people who reach out and be like, "You're not willing to do this, extra thing for me?"    I'm like, "No, you knew the agreement. The agreement was I was gonna provide this, this, this and this at this price, at this time frame."    And it's funny…    We call it an offer, but it's also an agreement between the buyer and the seller.   BAM! (Write that down!!!!)   Here’s the equation…   BUYER + SELLLER + OFFER = AGREEMENT   Let me illustrate this another way...   There's a place where my wife and I take our car where we know they're gonna act like our car is gonna fall apart in a second!   ... and then, they try to charge us like three extra grand for repairs that don't matter.    You know what I'm saying?