Today is my wife’s birthday, so this email is one of my only work priorities for the day…
I’m also baking an angel food cake and a roasted veggies dish for dinner.
And as I was working on the cake a little earlier, I had a little epiphany I want to share with you.
First off: did you know recipe books are one of the perpetual best-selling book categories out there?
I’ll get to why in a moment, but that’s a very important point. People love to buy recipe books. For most folks who never read a book once they get out of school, they probably peek into a recipe book from time to time. Some nearly every day!
And many houses that don’t have any other books will have an entire bookshelf dedicated to recipe books.
Again, the “why” is important, but we’re not quite there yet.
Also: one of the most popular social networks out there is chock-full of — you guessed it — recipes!
Ever been on Pinterest? You probably have. If you’ve spent any time on there, you’ll quickly see it’s dedicated to a bunch of DIY things. Arts and crafts. Home renovation projects. And… Recipes!
Of course, with it being so visually-focused, these items are great for the medium.
But… Maybe it’s a chicken-and-egg thing.
Are recipes popular on Pinterest because people love to share recipes? Or is Pinterest popular because it’s a great place to share recipes?
I think it’s a little of both.
In fact, I have a Pinterest account that I seldom use EXCEPT when I’m looking for something to cook.
So… WHY are recipes so popular — and how does this apply to creating an irresistible product or service?
Let’s look beyond the obvious (people have to eat). And consider: What’s going on with a recipe, at its very core?
People have a problem: they want a great meal.
A recipe solves that problem in an ideal way: it gives them a great meal with minimal thought or effort on their part.
Problem-solution.
A recipe provides an ideal solution to a common problem. Even better, it does it while minimizing the independent thought and chance for error on your part.
After all — as long as you have even reasonable kitchen skills, the vast majority or recipes only require you to follow some pretty basic instructions to cook a great meal.
Follow simple directions, get a great meal.
Maximum results in minimum effort.
But what if you’re dealing with sophisticated “cooks?”
Listen: I’m pretty smart. I can actually figure some things out in the kitchen for myself. If I wanted to, I could come up with all my meals from scratch. I could be consistently creative.
But I don’t want to. I want the reliability of someone else’s experience, from their trial and error. I want them to have figured it out for me, so I don’t have to. So I can get my desired result, reliably and without too much fuss.
Give me instructions. Let me follow them. And let me be satisfied — and bring the joy of a great meal to my loved ones.
I don’t care how sophisticated I am. For things that are not my Unique Ability, I love leaning on a recipe. And even when I’m working on something I AM already great at, and that I bring my Unique Ability to, I often want the inspiration and “best practices” of a proven recipe to serve as a starting point.
Here’s how to apply the “recipe” secret to creating irresistible product and services…
Any good product or service is based on solving a problem for a target market.
You know who you are serving. You know what result they want — the problem they want to solve. And you’ve got a sneaking suspicion for how you’re going to get them that result.
Now: how can you simplify the process of getting the result for them?
How can you take away as much variability and question of result as possible? What can you do to break down the achievement of their goal into easy-to-follow steps?
How can you create a “recipe” they can follow?
The more you can turn it into a reliable, repeatable process, the more attractive it becomes.
They don’t question the result — they just have to choose if they want it today. This is powerful. This makes it easy for the broadest segment of your market to say “yes” to your proposition.
Then your marketing is all about showing them how you’ve taken the variability and uncertainty of getting the result. Your marketing is all about showing them that you’ve turned their desired result into a recipe that’s easy to follow.
Here’s the result you get. And here’s how easy I’ve made it.
That’s a breakthrough idea.
Yours for bigger breakthroughs,
Roy Furr
