Why You Should Have a Good Product Ecosystem

WEBVTT 1 00:00:02.540 --> 00:00:02.740 Yeah, 2 00:00:05.240 --> 00:00:08.670 what's up B two B growth. Welcome back to another episode. I'm your host, 3 00:00:08.670 --> 00:00:12.620 timmy Bauer on the content strategist here at Sweet Fish. And my guest today 4 00:00:12.620 --> 00:00:17.290 is Nick Bradley. He is the co founder at scale up your business and the host 5 00:00:17.290 --> 00:00:21.600 of the scale up your business podcast. Nick, Welcome to the show. High To me, 6 00:00:21.600 --> 00:00:24.400 it's a pleasure to be here, mate. Thanks for having me on. Yeah, I'm 7 00:00:24.400 --> 00:00:26.780 excited to talk to you. We're gonna be talking about something that's, you 8 00:00:26.780 --> 00:00:31.960 know, not super duper in my wheelhouse of understanding. I asked you last time 9 00:00:31.960 --> 00:00:35.910 we talked Nick, which was quite a while ago, I said what what is in your 10 00:00:35.910 --> 00:00:40.430 opinion, the most underrated B two B marketing tactic? And you said not 11 00:00:40.430 --> 00:00:45.230 having a good product ecosystem? So I'm curious. First off, what do you mean by 12 00:00:45.230 --> 00:00:49.460 that? Yeah, I think when we talk about B to B and we talk about particularly 13 00:00:49.460 --> 00:00:52.850 bigamy marketing, a lot of people start talking about funnels and they talk 14 00:00:52.850 --> 00:00:59.780 about being really clear on your avatar or your archetype and all that and I'm 15 00:00:59.780 --> 00:01:05.260 very much into this concept called customer or client creation and that's 16 00:01:05.260 --> 00:01:09.710 that's very much about having a magnet, right? And so part of having a podcast 17 00:01:09.720 --> 00:01:13.490 is the beginning of that journey or could be having a book is the beginning 18 00:01:13.490 --> 00:01:19.250 of that journey or could be, but it's making a logical sequential step around 19 00:01:19.250 --> 00:01:25.340 an ecosystem that if people like you, they begin to know and trust you. A lot 20 00:01:25.340 --> 00:01:28.860 of the reasons why we do our content marketing and all that sort of stuff 21 00:01:29.340 --> 00:01:34.670 means that they have a very logical sequence of how they can increase that 22 00:01:34.670 --> 00:01:39.960 relationship with you both in a deeper way, but in a more commercial intent. 23 00:01:40.540 --> 00:01:43.900 So that's what I mean by a product ecosystem and having that very well 24 00:01:43.900 --> 00:01:48.800 fleshed out and why do you think that's such an underrated tactic? Because I 25 00:01:48.800 --> 00:01:53.460 think a lot of times people only focus on what I call their core product or 26 00:01:53.460 --> 00:01:56.850 service and, and there's a bit of a psychological thing here. To me, we 27 00:01:56.850 --> 00:02:00.800 want people to buy the thing that's gonna be the best in terms of 28 00:02:00.800 --> 00:02:04.730 monetization or income. And it's a little, it's a little bit about like 29 00:02:04.730 --> 00:02:08.590 trying to be too eager to get to the main course, right? You know, enjoy the 30 00:02:08.590 --> 00:02:12.000 starter, right, enjoy the conversation, all that sort of thing before you kind 31 00:02:12.000 --> 00:02:17.230 of, you know, get to the main event and, and I think you have to change your 32 00:02:17.230 --> 00:02:21.380 thought pattern, your belief system a little bit around what you want, your 33 00:02:21.380 --> 00:02:25.680 ideal client or customer to do, As opposed to just getting them to the 34 00:02:25.680 --> 00:02:29.250 thing that you want them to do. And there's a difference between two points 35 00:02:29.840 --> 00:02:36.000 and why do you think this is not widely adopted belief? I think it's becoming a 36 00:02:36.000 --> 00:02:40.430 little bit more talked about, but the reason I don't think it is, it comes 37 00:02:40.430 --> 00:02:45.810 back to what I said before hand. You know, you're we have a business and we 38 00:02:45.810 --> 00:02:49.900 want to sell something right and we want to create value for someone that 39 00:02:49.900 --> 00:02:54.120 we can monetize. And so a lot of the way we measure our performance and our 40 00:02:54.120 --> 00:02:58.150 success in business is in the revenue and therefore the profit that we can 41 00:02:58.150 --> 00:03:02.940 make. So how do you do that by selling the core product or service? But you 42 00:03:02.940 --> 00:03:06.220 know the way I think about it is you've got to slow down to speed up a little 43 00:03:06.220 --> 00:03:12.010 bit here and sometimes, well in my model, like I I put out a lot, I'm 44 00:03:12.010 --> 00:03:13.940 gonna I'm gonna break this down because I think it's easy for people to 45 00:03:13.940 --> 00:03:18.280 understand as opposed to me just ramble in my Australian accent. I put out a 46 00:03:18.280 --> 00:03:24.770 lot of stuff for free, Lots and lots of it. So 24 podcasts a month, Multiple 47 00:03:24.770 --> 00:03:29.540 interviews, clubhouse, two or three hours a day, all this sort of stuff, 48 00:03:29.540 --> 00:03:32.720 right. People, why are you doing, what are you doing it? Because it's a seven 49 00:03:32.720 --> 00:03:37.560 figure business, Right. And people go what? I don't understand this. The way 50 00:03:37.560 --> 00:03:41.210 you go from all of that front end to all that, that kind of monetization is 51 00:03:41.210 --> 00:03:45.690 the ecosystem, the intentional journey in the middle. So the way to think of 52 00:03:45.690 --> 00:03:50.420 this is to think of breaking your that sort of journeying into a number of 53 00:03:50.420 --> 00:03:54.980 components steps. So the way I talk about is you've got to have some form 54 00:03:54.980 --> 00:04:00.350 of ascension around how you build that relationship with your ideal customer. 55 00:04:00.740 --> 00:04:03.080 So the way I think of is the first thing you've got to have at the very, 56 00:04:03.080 --> 00:04:07.680 very front end is you've got to have something which is going to get them to 57 00:04:07.690 --> 00:04:12.670 first know that you exist. And for me, what I do is I have mainly the podcast, 58 00:04:12.680 --> 00:04:16.540 scale up your business. The second thing I have is I go on other people's 59 00:04:16.540 --> 00:04:21.930 podcasts and I add value. Now I don't expect, let's say listen to this right? 60 00:04:21.940 --> 00:04:25.970 I don't expect to have a commercial relationship with any of them, Okay. 61 00:04:25.980 --> 00:04:30.560 Might do. But I've got lots of people who come into my ecosystem that heard 62 00:04:30.560 --> 00:04:35.680 about me 23 years ago, right? And then they'll start, you know, wanting to 63 00:04:35.680 --> 00:04:38.710 know a little bit more, dig a bit deeper. So the way it works is you've 64 00:04:38.710 --> 00:04:41.670 got the thing that you're giving out for free, but it's part of the 65 00:04:41.670 --> 00:04:46.200 ecosystem, then obviously you want to bring people into something which is 66 00:04:46.200 --> 00:04:52.050 high value, but low cost. So a book, for example, having a book is a really, 67 00:04:52.050 --> 00:04:55.370 really doesn't cost very much money, You might even get it for free, but it 68 00:04:55.370 --> 00:05:00.160 provides a lot of value and provides a deeper immersion into into the business 69 00:05:00.160 --> 00:05:03.760 or the products and services that you ultimately want to sell. Got it. And 70 00:05:04.240 --> 00:05:09.360 once you've got that you can start to move into maybe a richer conversation. 71 00:05:09.360 --> 00:05:13.080 So quite often that front end, I might not even none of my team or my may not 72 00:05:13.080 --> 00:05:16.120 speak to a prospect, but they're starting to learn about me. Once they 73 00:05:16.120 --> 00:05:19.320 start to go a little bit deeper, they may want to engage in a conversation, 74 00:05:19.320 --> 00:05:22.230 they may want to come to a webinar that I've got in, they may want to turn up 75 00:05:22.230 --> 00:05:26.330 to something where they can have an interaction and it's only at that point 76 00:05:26.330 --> 00:05:29.900 in time after I've done two or three stages ahead that I then want to 77 00:05:29.900 --> 00:05:31.850 introduce a core product or service. 78 00:05:33.240 --> 00:05:36.980 Now for me that could be coaching programs, it could be group mentoring 79 00:05:36.980 --> 00:05:41.210 programs, it could be consultancy, all the different things that I do around 80 00:05:41.210 --> 00:05:44.570 buying businesses scaling them all that. But I'm not going to introduce that 81 00:05:44.570 --> 00:05:49.180 core product until there's been a number of stages before that, that 82 00:05:49.180 --> 00:05:53.200 someone has the ability to kind of make that decision that they want to move 83 00:05:53.200 --> 00:05:58.510 further. So the way I think about this is I'm never selling, I'm providing the 84 00:05:58.510 --> 00:06:03.160 opportunities through the ecosystem for people to then choose to buy when they 85 00:06:03.160 --> 00:06:08.860 are ready to do so. Hi dan Sanchez here with a quick break from this episode, 86 00:06:08.860 --> 00:06:13.420 sponsor Vidyard. If you haven't started using personal video yet to enhance 87 00:06:13.420 --> 00:06:17.820 your marketing campaigns, you're missing out having the ability to 88 00:06:17.820 --> 00:06:22.650 quickly capture video and record my computer screen or both helps me not 89 00:06:22.650 --> 00:06:27.540 only create marketing assets faster, it makes them way more personable. I use 90 00:06:27.540 --> 00:06:31.650 personal videos and social media email blast landing pages and even on our 91 00:06:31.650 --> 00:06:36.860 website, Vidyard makes it easy to record host in bed and share videos to 92 00:06:36.860 --> 00:06:40.990 more deeply engaged with your ideal buyers, prospects have told me 93 00:06:40.990 --> 00:06:46.070 repeatedly that they are blown away every time they get one for me. So sign 94 00:06:46.070 --> 00:06:51.320 up for Vidyard free today by going to Vidyard dot com slash GDP growth. And 95 00:06:51.320 --> 00:06:55.450 just like you guys, the team at Vidyard can't keep up with all these promo 96 00:06:55.450 --> 00:07:00.420 codes on podcasts so they are making signing up as easy as possible, so no 97 00:07:00.420 --> 00:07:04.710 promo code needed. Just go to Vidyard dot com slash GDP growth. So start 98 00:07:04.710 --> 00:07:10.150 using vidyard completely free and as a bonus, get their 2021 B two B video 99 00:07:10.150 --> 00:07:18.340 trans guide. Is there a like a perfect amount of this or you named a number of 100 00:07:18.340 --> 00:07:23.190 different things? What would you consider to be the core starting set of? 101 00:07:23.190 --> 00:07:26.860 Like you you must have something like this, you must have something like this 102 00:07:26.860 --> 00:07:31.830 and then it's okay to have Be driving into five components to it in my in my 103 00:07:31.830 --> 00:07:36.240 opinion. So you have to have something that you're prepared to give away for 104 00:07:36.240 --> 00:07:42.720 free or the perception of free. So it has to be something that has extreme. 105 00:07:42.730 --> 00:07:46.990 It has no commitment per se and you could argue that some people that don't 106 00:07:46.990 --> 00:07:49.600 pay, they don't pay attention but I don't believe that, but it has to have 107 00:07:49.600 --> 00:07:54.250 value. Okay, so that's stage one then you need to have something that people 108 00:07:54.250 --> 00:07:58.770 are prepared to pay a little bit of money for. So it has higher value than 109 00:07:58.770 --> 00:08:02.630 you're free. But there's a tiny commitment. But there's the 110 00:08:02.630 --> 00:08:08.100 psychological barrier has now changed. Okay, so that's the second piece. The 111 00:08:08.100 --> 00:08:12.380 third piece is where you have your your complete what I would call your 112 00:08:12.380 --> 00:08:16.200 complete and remarkable solution that you drive the majority of your profit 113 00:08:16.200 --> 00:08:20.150 or income from Now. That's where you could have a range of different things. 114 00:08:20.160 --> 00:08:24.650 I recently had a program called the Empire Creation accelerator, which is 115 00:08:24.650 --> 00:08:29.900 teaching people how to buy businesses. I sell that for around $2,000 as a five 116 00:08:29.900 --> 00:08:35.620 week intensive. But the people who came into that had been interacting so 80% 117 00:08:35.620 --> 00:08:40.740 90 of the sales came from the podcast of which I measure everything of which 118 00:08:40.740 --> 00:08:46.240 the majority of people had listened to. At least 10 episodes. Mm Okay. And then 119 00:08:46.240 --> 00:08:50.160 the final part and this is quite important as well is that you've got to 120 00:08:50.160 --> 00:08:53.800 have something after you've sold them your core product or service that they 121 00:08:53.800 --> 00:09:00.890 can buy, which is a new solution might be an extension of fixing the problem 122 00:09:00.890 --> 00:09:04.480 they initially came to you for or it could be something that's totally new 123 00:09:04.480 --> 00:09:07.110 in your ecosystem. So again, I'll explain what I've got to make sense of 124 00:09:07.110 --> 00:09:10.840 it. If someone comes along and learns how to buy businesses from me, the 125 00:09:10.840 --> 00:09:14.950 logical step from them is to learn how to scale them to grow them so that they 126 00:09:14.950 --> 00:09:19.120 can create more income and profit from the business. They have a quiet, Yeah, 127 00:09:19.130 --> 00:09:24.560 so I sell that as a additional piece. So I've got four or 5 stages there, 128 00:09:24.940 --> 00:09:28.890 which means that the journey is super clear and so I don't really have to 129 00:09:28.890 --> 00:09:32.020 spend money on marketing all my products and services because there's a 130 00:09:32.020 --> 00:09:35.980 very clear journey, a sequential journey which saves on my marketing 131 00:09:35.980 --> 00:09:39.750 costs but increases the conversion rate of what I'm trying to build ultimately 132 00:09:39.750 --> 00:09:43.270 across that ecosystem. I love it. Nick, I'm gonna ask you one of my favorite 133 00:09:43.270 --> 00:09:48.210 questions to ask and that is, let's say, somebody who is trying to grow a B2B 134 00:09:48.220 --> 00:09:53.250 business is listening and they honestly want to follow your advice. What is the 135 00:09:53.250 --> 00:10:00.380 easiest way that they could screw it up? I love that question, overthinking it. 136 00:10:00.390 --> 00:10:04.090 Overthinking it. Like listening to my kind of thing. If you think about what 137 00:10:04.090 --> 00:10:09.170 I've just described, it's quite logical, right? There's universal laws, right? 138 00:10:09.180 --> 00:10:13.520 One of the universal laws is the law of reciprocity. Okay, if you give 139 00:10:13.520 --> 00:10:18.320 something to someone else, they feel that they need to give something back. 140 00:10:18.330 --> 00:10:23.420 Could be just a thank you. If you do that at scale, right? No expectation, 141 00:10:23.420 --> 00:10:27.020 I'm just going to give you stuff, I'm gonna give you stuff then just by the 142 00:10:27.030 --> 00:10:30.530 Quantum's of those things, the dimensions, you're going to get value 143 00:10:30.530 --> 00:10:37.830 back. All this is, is starting with that serve first method and then being 144 00:10:37.830 --> 00:10:42.180 clear about how you bring people on through that journey. So simplification 145 00:10:42.180 --> 00:10:45.940 is the way not to screw it up. Don't everything item nick, I love it. Thank 146 00:10:45.940 --> 00:10:48.950 you so much for being on this podcast. How should listeners connect with you? 147 00:10:49.440 --> 00:10:52.990 Yeah, absolutely, been been absolute pleasure to me, Listen to scale up your 148 00:10:52.990 --> 00:10:57.480 business, we cover up this and moreover, hundreds of episodes. Now, they can 149 00:10:57.480 --> 00:11:00.070 also connect with our community on facebook, which is the scale of your 150 00:11:00.070 --> 00:11:03.680 business community with quite a few 1000 people there now and then our 151 00:11:03.680 --> 00:11:08.280 website is S U Y B dot global scale of your business. But yes, you yb dot 152 00:11:08.280 --> 00:11:12.170 global when we talk about various programs around all this stuff and more 153 00:11:12.170 --> 00:11:15.120 so the best way for people to get in touch on. I love it man, Thanks for 154 00:11:15.120 --> 00:11:17.250 being on. Hey, no problem, thank you 155 00:11:19.840 --> 00:11:23.650 For the longest time. I was asking people to leave a review of GDP growth 156 00:11:23.650 --> 00:11:28.100 in apple podcasts, but I realized that was kind of stupid because leaving a 157 00:11:28.100 --> 00:11:33.270 review is way harder than just leaving a simple rating. So I'm changing my 158 00:11:33.270 --> 00:11:36.980 tune a bit instead of asking you to leave a review, I'm just gonna ask you 159 00:11:36.980 --> 00:11:41.510 to go to be be growth in apple podcasts, scroll down until you see the ratings 160 00:11:41.510 --> 00:11:45.590 and reviews section and just tap the number of stars you want to give us no 161 00:11:45.600 --> 00:11:50.890 review necessary. Super easy. And I promise it will help us out a ton. If 162 00:11:50.890 --> 00:11:54.490 you want a copy of my book, content based networking, just shoot me a text 163 00:11:54.500 --> 00:11:59.050 after you leave the rating and I'll send on your way, text me at 4074 and I 164 00:11:59.050 --> 00:12:01.740 know 33 to 8.