It’s another Q&A episode of the Heart-Centred Business Podcast today, and we are talking about how to pivot your business.
Specifically, I’m answering the question: How do you get people excited when you decide to make that pivot for your business?
Let’s dive in!
Today’s question comes from the amazing Darleen Redman. You can find her at singlebosslady.com or on Instagram @singlebosslady.
Darleen asks:
“I would love to know what you do when you have done a slight pivot to help people to get to know what you do so that they are keen to buy from you.”
This is a really beautiful question.
I want to answer it about pivoting altogether because there are different strategies depending on how big that pivot might be…
1. How big is the pivot?
The first question we need to answer is: How big is this pivot?
A small pivot would be:
- Refining your niche
- Offering a new product
- Changing a little bit about the way that you deliver your services
- Changing your subject area/the way you support your clients slightly
Those are all pretty small pivots.
With a small or minor pivot, I recommend that we treat it as it is… it’s actually no big deal.
The reason why I say that it’s no big deal is that we don’t want to confuse your audience by having them think that there’s some major change coming, and then they can’t work out what the difference is between the new and the old.
That can create confusion.
What I would be doing if it’s a teensy pivot – if it’s just a small adjustment to the way that you do business, or it’s an adjustment to who you serve/the way that you serve them – then I would focus specifically on the new value proposition.
I wouldn’t be announcing the change and I wouldn’t be telling people a change is coming. I would simply start talking about the new value proposition. You could do a launch of a new offer if that’s something that you wanted to do, but I wouldn’t be confusing people with messaging that says your business is changing.
The reason why I recommend that (especially for a small pivot) is because we don’t want to create that sense in your audience of them needing to understand the change when they really don’t need to.
If you’ve changed your niche slightly and it has no material impact on how you serve people or the services that you offer, then just make the shift. You don’t need to announce that there’s a shift coming.
You can continue on with business as usual.
People aren’t necessarily as excited about your business as you are. The part they get excited about is how you can support them and help them, and what difference you can make to their lives – your value proposition.
Instead, I would just focus on introducing the new value proposition in a nice, simple and smooth business-as-usual fashion in most instances.
Of course, as I said, if it involves a new product or a new service, do a launch for that product or service.
But I don’t even recommend or necessarily think that every new service needs to have a countdown to that new service.
People aren’t excited by that in the way that you think that they would be excited by that.
They get excited when they see something that you’ve shared that is going to help them where they are right now.
If you want to start recruiting people for that new offer, do a webinar or create a new lead magnet or do some of your content that’s going to speak to that new value proposition first and foremost, without needing to make any big announcements about something that might potentially be coming.
Then when you DO launch your thing, you’ve simply been attracting in and nurturing the people who are the right fit for that new service.
If the pivot is ginormous – let’s say you’re no longer offering one-to-one services anymore, or you’re eliminating a product from your product suite – then you could use that as an opportunity to get people excited about their last opportunity to work with you in a certain way.
I wouldn’t necessarily assume that people are going to get as excited about this as you are. But if it is something that they’ve been on the fence about or they’ve had it on their list to work with you in that way, then letting them know that that service or product is only available until that pivot occurs can be a great way to get those last sales before you make that change.
That doesn’t apply to you, Darleen, because you’re doing a slight pivot. I would say for you to first and foremost focus on value proposition change, rather than announcing to your audience that there’s a pivot coming.
2. What’s in it for them?
Your audience will get excited when they know what’s in it for them.
Your job is not to get them excited about the pivot, your job is to get them excited about what’s in it for them.
If it’s a new service offering, a new message, or a new focus area, then get them excited through that lens of what’s in it for them.
Get them excited through your:
- Content
- Client attraction process
- Lead magnets
- Webinars
- Products
- Services
Change them and tell people what’s in it for them.
3. You can pivot multiple times
A lot of people feel like they only get a few pivots in their time as an entrepreneur.
I want to reassure you that it’s not the same as in the corporate world.
In the corporate world, if you see someone has jumped from job to job to job every six months for the last three years, then you might consider them a bit flighty. Your belief that they are invested in long-term building a career in your organisation might be a little lower.
We can take a lot of that fear and worry from our careers into our businesses.
We think that if we were to pivot and make adjustments in our businesses then people will think we’re flighty and can’t decide what we want to do.
That’s actually not as big a deal when you’re an entrepreneur or business owner.
The reason being is that your audience will never be as small as it is today. When it comes to pivots and changing direction, not as many people are noticing it as you think are noticing it.
Your job as an entrepreneur is to find your thing and get clear on your thing as quickly and effectively as possible.
If that takes eight pivots in the first six months, I would rather you take those eight pivots than not.
That’s why I’m particularly focused on not making a big deal about the pivot itself.
The pivot itself is not a big deal. What we make a big deal about is the new value proposition.
When you’re able to focus on the value proposition and not need to announce every change you’re making in your business, then you’re also not creating a perception of flightiness, and your ideal audience for right now are more drawn in.
The people for whom it’s not a good fit right now will just stop engaging, and that’s okay.
What we’re here to do is to narrow down and then create that momentum in the right direction.
If you’re running a race in the wrong direction and you’d already changed direction three times, you wouldn’t acknowledge that you’re running in the wrong direction and still continue in that direction because you’re committed to it.
You’re not going to get any closer to the finish line by running in the wrong direction.
Pivot your business when running in the wrong direction in business start-up
It’s the same with your business.
You know you’re going in the right direction when you find that:
- Niche that really resonates for you
- Messaging
- Offer/service
- Zone of genius for you to operate in
Until that point in time, keep pivoting.
There’s no problem with that. Especially if you’re not making these grand announcements about the changes that you’re making in your business. You just start to refine the way that you serve and the way that you offer.
With all of that being said, I want to reassure you and give you my number one piece of advice on how to get people excited…
Get them excited for the transformation that you facilitate, and your value proposition.
I say value proposition a lot, but it is the best way to describe what gets people excited.
Your value proposition is the perceived value of the transformation you facilitate through the eyes of your potential clients.
That’s really important: Through the eyes of your potential clients.
Different people will value your transformation in different ways.
It’s the reason why you see so many different responses when people post into a Facebook group asking how much people would pay for their service or product. You’ll have some people say $5, some people say $50, and some people say $500.
The reason why different people are giving different answers is that their perceived value of the thing is different.
(That’s also why you should never ask that question in Facebook communities. Don’t go and crowdsource your prices. The price is your decision! If you feel like you need some help with pricing, check out episode 147 of the podcast: tashcorbin.com/147.)
That’s why the pricing is so different when you ask that question. Different people will value that transformation differently depending on what their priorities are and how much they feel that it aligns to their priorities.
Your number one job when it comes to refining in your business is to get very clear about the transformation that you facilitate, get very clear on who you are focused on when you’re marketing (that’s your niche), and get very clear on how you can maximise that value for your niche.
If a pivot is going to maximise the value of the transformation you facilitate, then go for it! Just do it and start talking about that value proposition and that transformation.
You don’t need to give us all the big updates on the behind the scenes in your business and why you’re making the decisions that you’re making.
People will get excited when they can see the value in it for them.
If you’ve been reading along to this and you’re wondering how to get that momentum building in your business, I have a great free resource for you.
It’s called Fast Track Your Startup, and it’s absolutely free.
Check it out at tashcorbin.com/fasttrack.
Thank you so much for your question, Darleen! I hope you’ve enjoyed this episode, and best of luck with your pivot.
Until next time, I cannot WAIT to see you SHINE.
