I recently wrote an article about Apple and Steve Jobs (and the 3 books I’ve devoured). And the one thing that stood out was Steve’s obsession with SIMPLIFICATION. The focus of that article was simplifying your product line.
Now – let’s go into another lesson of simplification. And we’ll take it a step deeper..
SIMPLIFY YOUR PRODUCT OFFER
As information marketers, we often get caught up in focusing purely on profits and not what’s best for your customer.
Years ago, Apple had a popular graphics software program. And since the company is always looking to improve their products – they purchased the rights to another software program which was essentially enhanced coloring. It was VERY expensive. In fact, this other software used to sell for $10,000 PER PERSON – so Apple bought the company and the program.
One of the teams at Apple figured, “hey, we invested a lot of money in this software company and people have paid $10,000 for it in the past.. so let’s create a PREMIUM version of our current software program. One basic (the current one) and one with the enhanced coloring package”
In other words, if Apple had their regular software which sold for $100, they can offer the Premium version (with the new color feature) for more money.
They spent weeks on the name of the premium product. On the special packaging. On the pricing. They worked hard to separate the new enhanced product from the regular offer.
They ran the numbers and figured out how many will take the premium. It all made business sense.
Until…
HIT IT WITH THE SIMPLE STICK
The team was excited to run the new idea by Steve Jobs.
And, according to the book, he simply look at them and after one minute said, “No. It’s too confusing. Let’s just include the new $10K color feature IN the current product. ONE PRODUCT. That’s it”.
They told him how much money they would sacrifice by not offering a premium – but Steve just said no. It’s ONE product. It’s INCLUDED with the product. Period. End of story.
And that’s what it became. One product WITH the enhanced coloring upgrade included in the price.
THE INTERNET MARKETERS WOULD DIE
A lot of my fellow marketers would never go for that. Not in a million years.
They’d see the money they are leaving on the table – BUT they don’t see how much better it is for the end-user. And how much good will they are building.
And yes, the argument could be made that by NOT offering the premium you are doing your advanced users a disservice. Or there is psychological pricing at play. And about a dozen other reasons why you should offer a premium version.
But stop for a minute and really think about it…. think about what is TRULY best for your customer. Think from your heart instead of from your bank account.
If you are the customer – wouldn’t YOU want the best product available? Or would you want to be forced to pay extra for another feature?
I’ve bought expensive software in the past only to be sold more “modules” and it never sat right with me. Why not just offer it ALL for one price. Especially since I knew they just had to click a button to enable that new feature.
DISCLAIMER: Yes, I’ve been just as guilty of this in the past. I’ve offered features as upsells just to increase my profits when I probably should not have. But I vowed that I now will ALWAYS put my customers before my profits.
Ok, back to simplification and offering premium versions…
Now, I’m not talking about programs that require more bandwidth for advanced users that costs the company more money. Or one-on-one coaching which is more time intensive. I’m talking about FEATURES that have already been developed and tested.
Does this sacrifice some initial income?
Yes.
But what does this do to the RELATIONSHIP you are now building with your customers.
You are seen as the company that puts your customers before profits. You are seen as their trusted resource. You are seen as truly caring.
And that is the power of simplicity.
So look at your products right now. Look at your upsells and your downsells. What can you do to truly deliver outstanding value. What can you INCLUDE in your offer….to show the customers you truly care about creating the best products. To show everyone you are in this to help people, not just line your pockets.
It’s one of the reasons why Apple is one of the most profitable companies in the world.. and why so many “marketers” aren’t living up to their potential.
Are you ready to join the movement and deliver products and services that make the world a heck of a lot better?
AGREE? DISAGREE? COMMENTS?
CAN YOU SIMPLIFY YOUR PRODUCT?
P.S. Oh yeah.. it’s on.
P.P.S. Please help spread the message. Like, Tweet and +1 it.
Great post Ryan.
When I think of the best design in all forms, simplicity is key. Why shouldn’t any product offering be the same? Ambiguity causes confusion.
Thank you for your simple, unambiguous, yet always profound words of wisdom.
Cheers,
Marcus.
Thanks Marcus and I agree with “Ambiguity causes confusion”
Rock ‘on
Ryan
I get tired of marketers who don’t give you all the information you need to be successful. They say they will in the sales video, but then leave you hangin. I wish when people would say that they are going to do something that they actually do. Don’t they realize they are hurting their “rep”.?!
Sorry typing fast on the iPad, bad grammer
David, it’s about time someone said what everyone is feeling…
That’s why I don’t even bother with these “free webinars” anymore. I don’t even open most emails from any of these marketers any more.
“Free webinar will show you EXACTLY how Joe Blow earned $10,000 in one week with a simple strategy”.
I call BS.
We all know it’s a going to be a webinar showing how much money he made and then try to sell you some program that promises to make you the same amount of money. That’s all it ever is. Period.
And the worst part is when others team up with the one doing the launch, invite him/her to their “free webinar” during the launch, positioning it as an “interview” or “teleclass”.
“Teleclass” my @$$! Urgh!!
I hear ya on that one David :)
Ryan
So true..great post!
Ready!
Thanks Rafael!
Ryan
That goes back to Ryan’s earlier teachings of building a great product that will really help someone and including all the features they need to 10x give them what the title of the product promises. It is totally about giving them what they want and exceeding expectations. And now it is about building a community also. That is the difference between a short term hit and a long term business.
Way to hook up with the Cramer!
Hey Jerry,
Yes, it really does come back to the 10X rule.
And the community is VITAL!
Ryan
Ryan, I continue to get great nuggets of advice from you. Thank you! I’m in the process of truly defining my brand and what I have to offer that can actually help people. And as soon as my brain starts to wander away toward business and profits…you’re bringing me back.
Can’t wait to meet you at Dotcomxpo.
Thank you Jason.
And I look forward to meeting you too!
Ryan
Couldn’t agree more. We’ve gotten into a period where we are simplifying our product offerings and have alot less to offer now, but what we are offering comes with a ton! Great advice.
Hey Scott,
I am also going to simplify my product offerings too. Can’t wait to reveal it!
Ryan
Super post Ryan,
What you talking about is the same things that “Lean Six Sigma” is teaching and I strongly agree with you when you say, Information marketers often get caught up in focusing purely on profits and not what’s best for the customer. And that is one of the reasons why 1 out of 5 fails.
If we can start by putting our customers at the center of our business, design simple, user friendly products that our customers want not what we think our customers want, we can build empires that will stand strong in rough times.
To All Our Success
Zaks
Zaks – not sure I can add much to what you said…
“If we can start by putting our customers at the center of our business, design simple, user friendly products that our customers want not what we think our customers want, we can build empires that will stand strong in rough times.”
Well said!
Ryan
Hey Ryan
Sound advice in marketing ‘goodness’. You never fail to deliver on that front!
This advice totally makes sense. My take away from this post is put your customers before your profits. It’s something like delayed gratification with the goodwill you build with your customers. Ethical marketing – sneaky, underhand tricks to get more money from people – instead think about your customers by ‘walking a mile in their shoes’ keeping it simple and over delivering.
I must praise your honesty in admitting your guilt/mistake in putting profits first in the past. If only more Internet Marketers not only shared your views but actually practiced what you preach.
Thought provoking and interesting post as usual Ryan!
~ Ricky
Hey Ricky,
Always put customers before profits. Always.
And yes, I’m always open with my success and where I’ve made BIG mistakes too.
Thanks for your comments…
Ryan
Ryan – This resonates. Thanks for sharing your insight. – Clay
Thank you Clay!
Ryan
Thanks for this post. Thought provoking for me…..
Best, Jane
You are certainly welcome Jane :)
Ryan
Another great post today Ryan! It will not only make our customers feel good getting high quality products at good prices but it will make us as a company feel good too!
Thanks for another bit of wisdom and common sense!
BB
Hi Beverly,
I always appreciate your supportive and positive comments. It makes my day :)
Ryan
Simple is always better no matter what you are promoting. If people don’t “get” what you promoting, they won’t buy it no matter how great it is.
Al you customer will think is ” damn if it’s this hard to understand what this product is, imagine how complicated it will be to actually USE”
They will walk.. FAST!
Following your tips here Ryan will have you lose money in the front end, but think of the money you will make down the road from HUGELY happy customers that liked your product and used it no problem.
Hey John Paul,
Yes, you will lose short-term but MORE than back for it over the long run. Absolutely!
Ryan
hi ryan i agree the custmer should be put first before the $ start to add up on your end but also i know yjay it takes alot of money to put into these products alos so it is kind of a lose lse situation when it comes to methere is so many things i would love to order thru you comey but i’m lower class and am disabled with two children so i am so very limited on my income that has to last for a whole moth so thereforth i can’t buy wjat i really do waht to buy due to prices that i know that would help me greatly with my illness but it has come down to a lose lose sitions for me becaseu i am om disablity and have two child to feed at the same tme and i am in a wheelchair so it just makes even more difficault for to lose the weight my dr says i do have to because it just makes my illness worse on me so thanks for the wonderful blog and i am so very glad that your the oppisite from other companys you put your customers first instead of the profect but the bottom line is if your honest with putting peopler first instaed of profits you’d be a amazed at how much more people you will get to order your profist so it will all end tha same in the end more sustomers more $ but if you put $ first instead of customers you will ose becasue they will just go somewhere else to get products and then you lose that sale all togerther so it is best to put customers first vefore $ becasue in the end you’ll habe so much more customers that can afford th cost and will stay with your company and will be making more $ in the end anyways great past love it that your truthful about this all and actually came clean with how this was making you feel you made the hardest step first and just geep going in that direction and you’d be so surprised at how much $ you are making with customer that will be able to buy t=your produts instead of pasting over them because they can’t sfford the price so keep up the wonderful job ryan and hopee to hear back from you there is a order i do want to place with you but need to talk to you first before i do order because of my lowed income and rwo childen down below i will put my e-mail only and if you want to talk over they phone then i will give you my home number in my personal e-mail only thanks again ryan your on the right track god bless you and your family and your company!!!!
dancingwatersdtown@comcast.net
and please i’d like to talk to ryan not a custon=mer service person but you personally hope to hear from you ryam have a very blessed week and weekend!!!!
in jesus’s hands always
missy
6/28/12
Melissa, it seems the formatting of your comment went out of wack somehow. If it didn’t, can I suggest that, in future, you use punctuation, sentence case and capitalisation, as it puts people off reading your comment. Smile :) Kennie
Missy,
Your message was a bit difficult to understand.
I have TONS of free articles and resources throughout this site – and it’s more than enough to help you get on the right track!
Stay positive and never, ever give up on your dreams.
Ryan
hi ryan again please forgive me of my spelling not good with spell so i very sorry thanks again ryyan god bless you and your family and your company
in jesus’ hands always
missy
Something important to keep in mind: Apple sells technology products. Technology products are keeping this lame economy running right now; they’re in high demand.
Information marketers sell information. And information is free like never before. If a prospect can’t pay your premium price, they can dig a little harder into Google and piece together what they want to know from blog posts, or gasp! from a library book.
When you sell information, even if you package it for delivery to multiple people at one time, essentially you are selling a service, not a product.
Your buyers are purchasing your expertise — your consulting. The danger in generically packaging your consulting, instead of giving it to one individual at a time, is you lose authority in the marketplace when your generalized advice doesn’t get results.
Simplicity makes sense for any business. But don’t confuse Apple’s business model with your own if you’re selling “information” to “get rich.”
Jen,
I never said you should generically package your consulting. In fact, I even mentioned that things like coaching are a different animal.
BUT – can you package things together so they don’t have 17 different products or coaching options to choose from.
And a majority of my income is not in the “to get rich” category – I still own businesses in the health and fitness markets that are both information and hard products too.
Best,
Ryan
Ryan,
After your last article on Apple & Simplicity, I was inspired to revisit my business and hit it with a simple stick.
It was an interesting exercise.
How do you simplify a single product (service) with a flat pricing structure?
No Upsells. No Downsells.
It is as simple as it gets. Right? $97 – period! Nothing complicated.
Turns out we still have room for simplification. We could simplify the explanation of the service (features?). Since, our services cover so many different types of tech stuff for internet marketers (from blogs to websites to plugins and Social Media), the tendency is to try to explain everything we do from the tech standpoint.
This overwhelms some customers with too much information and too much technical jargon.
So, we came up with a simple infographic that represents the biggest benefit of our services to our customer base – Internet Marketers and Online Entrepreneurs. We focused on one single benefit.
They still have access to more information if they need it, but we try not to dump everything on them when they land on our home page. We’re still working on simplifying it further.
But, the exercise did not end with our product line alone. We brainstormed about simplifying customer experience and simplifying our processes.
And we’ll be implementing many of them in the coming weeks at http://www.WebSupportTeam.com.
It will make life simpler for our customers giving them better value. In fact, some of those changes were so simple, that we have already completed them.
It is always wonderful to read your blog posts and walk away with some actionable content to work on right away.
Thanks a million.
Jay
Way to implement Jay.
The stuff I teach is meant to be put to the test to prove it either right OR wrong.
Keep us posted on your progress..
Ryan
Wise words from Mr Jobs.
It’s interesting how many are jumping on that bandwagon AFTER they’ve made the cash though.
Hopefully it’s not a fad.
Mike
I think there have always been people doing the right things and keeping things simple. And more will realize it’s the ONY way to do business.
Ryan
The true take away from this and that we all can learn from is that Apple has a stellar branding/marketing program, period.
They have the highest price tech on the market. (Premium pricing) Their sales aren’t yet where PC HP/Dell etc…. but they are rapidly advancing. (positive growth vs. no or neg. growth-overall sales…..)
The second big take away is Apple is good a creating new products THAT PEOPLE WANT.
I remember in the 90′s the first “CD” burners required an engineering degree to operate and get results. The tech companies had to simplify they all did. The consumer demanded it.
That’s where Jobs excelled. He was the “human touch” liason between the consumer and the tech creators. He got IT and he need the tech guys to get it.
PC has been in the game in simplification as well but it doesn’t have the marketing that Apple has.
It will be interesting to see what happens with Apple in the next 5 years.
Hey Bret,
Steve Jobs ALWAYS focused on things from the customer’s perspective. And that’s why he always simplified products and offerings.
Customer-friendly products and services is the way to go.
Ryan
Hey Ryan,
Years ago, I had a product for sale. It could have been black on white or white on black. Same price for either. And at first, I let the customer pick. That SIMPLE choice seemed customer servicing, but quickly proved to be more obnoxious and troublesome than I’d expected. I often got bogged down with some little, old lady having to come out and compare one to the other, back and forth for numerous minutes, deciding which color scheme looked better for her home.
In turn, I just went to offering my product in black on white. No choice at all. The customers didn’t care – they were happy with the product, and I made more sales because I could attend to more potential customers.
I came across the idea of simplicity accidentally, and it definitely worked for me.
Thanks for sharing that story Dave.
Simplicity.. it works!
Ryan
Totally agree! BUT – not always the easiest advice to remember.
I think as experts (like those geeks you talk about) we get so wrapped up in the enhancements that we forget the simple stuff – or we think our customers want more when often they just want the basics done really, really well.
Must remember to spend time as Steve Jobs in my business!
Thanks
Cathy
Cathy,
Just ask “what would Steve Jobs do?”
:)
Ryan
I believe always go against the herd! If you look at the margins Apple makes on its products it makes up for some of the loss of the “premium” version.
Dave,
The point was that they could have made even more with a “premium” version as a percentage of people would have taken it.
I agree with your “going against the herd” comments – it’s the only way to roll…
Ryan
Thanks Ryan! I received an email from one of the shopping carts we use recently. They were looking to upsell me on increased security for my hosted cart — hosted on their servers.
I wrote them an email back suggesting (kindly) that they should rethink their strategy, since a shopping cart company should be as secure as humanly (or electronically) possible — security shouldn’t be an option, it should be built in.
Not only did this make me question the cart I’m using, it also was the last straw in a string of bonehead moves and non-attention that made me realize they don’t understand their customer at all.
On to the next…
Kev
Hey Kevin,
Can you believe that?
Well sir, you are only 89% secure – BUT for an extra $50 per month, you will be 100% secure.
The model for showing customers you truly don’t care about them and only care about your bottom line.
Pathetic.
Ryan
Ryan
Great post.
That is why i stay close to you
Your inner circle gives so much
You overdeliver times 1000
You give real actionable items and truly care about our success.
Most marketers dont tell you everything so they can sell a upsell
but lots of times
THEY DONT KNOW..JUST THROWING OUT BS TO make sales.
they know how to take crap and package it and market it but dont know
That is why I only stay close to people that make millions without having to
sell any product for marketing. lots of these marketers are like pimps and whores
and laugh at all the people buying their packaged crap.
Ryan you are one of the good guys. Your inner circle and $1000 a day is all people need.
Don
Honolulu, Hawaii
Don,
Wow – thanks so much for your support and comments.
I appreciate it and will continue to overdeliver for you.
Ryan
Hell yes Ryan I am… I love your new aspect on marketing to your customers and my business partner I are one of them. We thank you for that. We love the fact that you just give so much Efing value it’s sickning. Keep it up my Brutha. Rock that Shiznit!!!!!! Just want to say thank you again for the 1k Per Day Formula and The Ryan Lee Method…
Hey Jack,
I will continue to “Rock that Shiznit” forever :)
Ryan
Excellent Post Ryan!
It worked for Steve Jobs, but also for Henry Ford
You can have a Model “T” in any color, as long as it’s black -one color – Simplicity
Build more cars that common people to afford – Simplicity
Use an assembly line for ease of production – Simplicity
how about Eli Whitney – building a rifle using all mass produced parts:
easy manufacturing and repair – Simplicity
In art school was taught “KISS” it – “Keep It Simple Stupid”
Great examples Karl.
Thanks for contributing here!
Ryan