We're continuing our deep dive into the 'O' of BATON - Offer.

Yesterday, we mapped out our sales funnel. Today, we're going to talk about why we're not going to build it... yet.

Confused? Don't worry, it'll all make sense soon. I hope anyway!

Let’s get started

Starting with Service: The Counterintuitive First Step

Why Not Rush Into Digital Products?

Digital products are the bomb. They are the holy grail of online business. Assets that you build once and sell forever, automatically, in your sleep.

That is entirely doable. It’s not just online guru BS.

But - we’re not deploying digital products in our Offer just yet.

"Hold up, Kyle," I hear you say. "Yesterday you told us about this beautiful funnel with digital products at the start. Now you're saying we shouldn't build those first? What gives?"

I get it. It seems counterintuitive. But there's a method to this madness, I promise.

Here's the deal: our final funnel is a map guiding our final destination. But we won't build it in that order. Why? Because during the planning stages, our full offer funnel is theoretical. We need to build it with respect to what our customers actually want. And to do that, we need their input.

If we rush off and build our first digital products, we're building blind. We could spend weeks or months compiling a course or writing an ebook, but we're doing that with reference only to ourselves.

In fact this is what most people do. And if you’ve ever had a failed product it’s probably what you did too.

Instead, we need to be talking to and working with customers first and foremost.

And this means, in the early days, starting with a service.

The Power of Starting with Service

We start by offering a basic, MVP (Minimum Viable Product, or service in this case…) version of our service.

This lets us truly nail our customer problems and our solutions because we're talking to them daily, weekly, or monthly about what they need.

We start with the highest value part of our offer - our premium service. Why?

Because if we can't solve their problem using this, then we can't solve their problems using stripped-down product versions either. If you can’t solve their problem when you are giving it your all then you can’t help them. Sound brutal - but it’s true. Do yourself (and your customers) a favour and don’t pursue the idea if you can’t pull it off.

Instead by deploying our service first we give ourselves (and customers) the best chance of resolving their initial problem. Which is how we drive value and which is what businesses exist to do.

Then, sneak preview, we'll bundle all of our learnings from our service into products. And we'll make the service we are now building the premium upsell after the products. We back into our funnel. We’ll cover that later in this Playbook.

Crafting Your Service Offer

Right now, the key is working out what that service offer looks like. There are two basic components - the customer problem and our solution.

Problems we’ve discussed. And you should have honed in on during the Audience and Tribe parts of building your business. If you do not know your customers’ problem go back and start again - do NOT try to sell them anything.

Let's say our customer problem is having excess body weight. They want to shift it, cut down, and lose weight. Our solution could come in a huge range of options - group coaching, 1:1 meal plans, personal chef, an on-demand video course. The options are limitless.

They fall, however, along a couple of axes

1. The range of delivery: Is it 1:1, small group, or one-to-many?

2. The format of delivery: In-person, written, audio, video, etc.

3. Your input as provider: Is it Done For You, Done With You, or Do It Yourself (customer does the work)?

Let's use this prompt to generate some service ideas based on your customer problems

You are an AI assistant specialising in business strategy and service development. Your task is to help the user generate a variety of service (no products) ideas based on their customer's primary problem. Use the following context and framework to guide your response:

Context:
When developing a new business offer, it's often best to start with a service rather than a digital product. This allows for direct interaction with customers, immediate feedback, and the ability to refine the offer based on real-world needs. Services can vary along three main axes:

1. Range of delivery: 1:1, small group, or one-to-many
2. Format of delivery: In-person, written, audio, video, etc.
3. Level of provider input: Done For You, Done With You, or Do It Yourself

Instructions:
1. Ask the user to provide the following information:
   - A clear, concise statement of their customer's primary problem

2. Based on the provided problem, generate 15 diverse service ideas. For each idea, include:
   - A catchy name for the service
   - A brief description (1-2 sentences)
   - The range of delivery (1:1, small group, or one-to-many)
   - The format of delivery (in-person, written, audio, video, etc.)
   - The level of provider input (Done For You, Done With You, or Do It Yourself)

3. Ensure that your ideas cover a wide range of possibilities across all three axes.

4. After presenting the ideas, remind the user to:
   - Remove any ideas they personally don't want to pursue
   - Consider which ideas might be most appealing to their target audience
   - Remember that the final choice will be made based on customer interest, not personal preference alone

5. Conclude with a brief explanation of why starting with a service can be beneficial:
   - Immediate customer feedback
   - Ability to iterate quickly
   - Opportunity to build deep understanding of customer needs
   - Potential to create case studies and testimonials
   - Generate revenue while developing future product offerings

Present your response in a clear, easy-to-follow format with appropriate headings and bullet points. Encourage the user to view these ideas as starting points that can be refined based on customer interactions and feedback.

This prompt will take a customer problem and turn it in 15 potential service ideas.

Feed in one customer problem only for best results. Clarity matters. If your customers have various problems re-run the prompt for each.

From the generated ideas, go ahead and remove all the ones you DON'T want to do. They're off the table.

You should still be left with many options. How to choose?

Here’s the crucial part: You don't. Your customers will. We'll cover the launch method in the next Part.

Why This Approach Works

Starting with a service offer allows us to

1. Get immediate feedback from real customers

2. Iterate quickly based on what's working and what isn't

3. Build a deep understanding of our customers' needs

4. Create case studies and testimonials for future marketing

5. Generate revenue while we're building our product suite

It's like getting paid to do market research whilst we develop the digital product versions of our Offer. Not a bad deal, right?

In the next Part we're going to dive into how to actually launch this service offer. We'll talk about the cohort launch method - a powerful way to validate your offer and start bringing in revenue quickly.

Remember, the goal here isn't to build the perfect offer right out of the gate. It's to start serving customers, learning from them, and refining our offer based on real-world feedback. It's about building something people actually want, not just what we think they want.

If you're not a premium subscriber yet, what are you waiting for? Don't miss out on the full Offer-building blueprint! And when you upgrade you’ll instantly unlock 40+ AI Business Playbooks and the Private Community Area. Learn more here.

Keep prompting,

Kyle