Dan Sullivan always says, "Sell the tickets before you write the play because if nobody buys the tickets, you don't need the play."
There have been many times I've seen entrepreneurs spend months or years developing systems to sell before they've spent any time gauging whether people wanted the system in the first place. In other words, they wrote the play then tried to sell tickets…
So the first thing I recommend people do before setting up a system to sell is to get busy and apply the system to your own market in a very transparent way. Kind of like how I use the 8-Profit Activators in my podcasts.
In the podcast, I get people aligned around the 8-Profit Activators, which moves them in the direction of believing the system, and helps show how it will work for them. Every time I demonstrate ways the 8-Profit Activators help people get what they really want, that's going to build trust for me and the system. And of course, there are infinite ways I can help people. I'm never in danger of talking about my Profit Activators system too much or helping too many people.
The podcast reinforces the power of my framework by showing everyone how I am able to help people in any business. This means that when I send an email saying, "I'm getting together with a small group of people in Orlando next month. We're going to spend 3 days going deep in applying the 8-Profit Activators to your business. Would you like to join us?" there's no pitch, everything is focused on creating value and engagement, and people have already imagined the results they can get. I'm selling tickets before I write the play.
If no one wanted to join me, I wouldn't have to worry about creating the program because people aren't interested. BUT, if lots of people consistently want to join me, now I know I've got a program people actually want. That's exactly what happened with the Breakthrough Blueprint events.
A podcast is an easy way to regularly show people the results you can get. Do you see an opportunity to interview people, and help them using your own proprietary system?
A podcast is an easy way to regularly show people the results you can get.
If you get a good response ("you're selling a lot of tickets"), then you know your next objective is to "write the play.”