📄 Why nobody gives a damn about your better mousetrap

Of course, if you want to succeed in business, one of the things you need to figure out, is 'how to build a better mousetrap':

You take something broken or half-functional or merely decent, and you improve and innovate on it.

Problem is, once you build your better mousetrap, and you want your business to work, you then have to figure out the next thing:

How to find strangers, and turn them into customers.

And that's where entrepreneurs often get completely derailed.

Especially when your better mousetrap is an actual innovation, or something that shifts paradigms, or radically transforms how the market sees an offer (think: AirBnb, Uber, Google search):

That's when you need to be doubly careful that you don't 'make it about yourself'.

Because the truth is, nobody gives a damn about a better mousetrap.

When someone has a mouse problem, they don't lay awake at night thinking "I wish I could find a better mousetrap".

Instead, their thoughts are more like "I wish I could finally get rid of that goddam mouse infestation".

So when you show up talking about how good and innovative and effective your mousetrap is, the only thing you'll achieve, is having a buyer tune you out.

Because, again, they don't care about your better mousetrap. They just care about their problem, and about how to get rid of it.

I had this illustrated once again yesterday, in a discovery call with a consultant whose sales are complex and lengthy on a good day, and who came to me because she's having trouble getting people to the starting line and hiring her.

As we spoke, the reason for that revealed itself: she's quite focused on the apparently truly innovative aspect of her methodology.

And that means the signals her buyer gets, are that she's more focused on her solution, than she is on their problem.

And whenever a buyer gets even a whiff of that impression, the results are indecision, "We need to think about it", and getting ghosted.

So whatever new, different, improved, innovative or better solution it is that you sell, never forget that you'l only sell it if you sell plain vanilla.

And, never forget: your mousetrap is about you, but solving the mouse problem is about them. So, talk to your buyers about their mouse problem, not your better mousetrap.

P.s. Would it help to have a second pair of eyes on your deals and your sales? Then the SFC Personal coaching membership was designed to give you exactly that - and, give you more sales at shorter cycles and higher prices, as well.