I recently had to make a video recording of a horse we wanted to sell. The
buyer was hundreds of miles away and wanted to see a video commercial before traveling
to look at the horse.
OK.
Find the video camera, charge the battery, wait for proper lighting, and find
a blank tape and record. Should be simple. Four hours and three retakes later
I had raw footage in “Compact VHS”format. The buyer needed it in DVD form. Start
over, borrow digital camera, retake, edit, record and mail DVD. What a frustrating
and time consuming project of mediocre quality!
I thought there
had to be a need for a service for horsemen who wanted a quality video of their
horses for sale. I considered many ways to package the service. Objections to
price, quality and timing forced me to scuttle the video service project. Great
idea, but That Won’t Work!
Hearing that phrase in my mind often
has contributed to heaving a lot of good business ideas in the cranial dumpster.
It’s human nature to process an idea in the mental software program called Life
Experience. Life Experience software is difficult to disable. It’s close to
impossible since we judge ideas on past experiences, observations and hearsay
from others. If you believe the old saying, “There ain’t much new under the sun.”
like I do, you will be prone to filter and discard a good idea when research shows
it failed in the past.
If you stop to think about the reasons why an
idea failed in the past, you realize that the reasons may or may not have anything
to do with Now or the Future. They are reasons for failure in the past. That’s
it. Often we are quick to draw conclusions based on history only.
I believe
another saying that you probably believe in too. Timing is everything.
A good idea for a product or a service is always a good idea. It creates benefits
for the user of the product or service. The reasons for the lack of success of
a good idea have nothing to do with the merit of the problem solving idea.
In a conversation with a prospective customer, he told me he had past experience
in video production. I pulled my horse for sale video service idea out of the
mental dumpster and explained the concept and the problems I had while trying
to develop the product. In ten seconds, he came up with a twist on the service
that used an idea not available ten years ago. Brilliant.
His twist on
the idea just uses some unconventional thinking that was not available on my Life
Experience software.
What big or small ideas have you thrown out
because you believed only in past experience to bring your idea to life? Start
asking questions beyond what you know. The question that you need answered from
others is, “What other ways can I do this to make it work?”
Calculating
price and packaging the product are part of learning to market methodically, one
of the skills I can teach you in my 8 simple strategies for success. Want
to learn more? click
here
