Karate has a sequence.
Dinner has a sequence.
Religion has a sequence.
Even good ol' school had a sequence.
And sequential empires, um businesses, work no matter if you sell a product, service or do some sort of training.
But as a seller of a product or service, a certain question must cross your mind.
How the heck are you going to create a sequence, when all you possibly have is a single product or service?
Well, let's examine a business book you've read recently, to see how a sequence works. So there you are with this absolutely awesome book where the author seems to have gone into amazingigalaboo detail. And you're so excited about this book and the methodology.
You feel like you've just cracked the Rosetta code. You really do feel that the book has solved your problems.
But actually it hasn't.
It doesn't matter how detailed a book. It doesn't matter how great a product or service, you are simply going to feel a temporary gain; A temporary high.
You are going to end up feeling like you're somehow biting into a tiny piece of chocolate.
You know how it feels to eat chocolate, don't you?
One bite leads to another, and then suddenly you've eaten the entire slab. And technically the chomping should stop there, but no it doesn't, because you buy some more when you're at the supermarket.
And then you buy some more. And some more.
And then you've got to huff and puff and run 18,000 miles to get rid of all that chocolate you've been eating.
But you still want more chocolate.
All products or services are like chocolate. They solve the problem, but only for a limited time. Then the reaction kicks in and the customer wants more. You give them more and they want even more.
If this is sounding evil, it isn't.
And here's the reason.
I haven't told you about my ‘Global’ Knife, have I?
Well there I was your regular food-lover, and then I run into this website which talks about knives. They also show me how to sharpen knives and cut onions, and remove that green stuff from garlic.
And I'm hooked.
So now I own a ‘Global’ Knife. And a ‘Global Ceramic Sharpener’ (to hone the knives); and a ‘Global Bread Knife’; and I dream of the collection of knives; and the bags that carry the knives; and I dream of taking the knives wherever I go on vacation.
Of course I'd still be using my old ‘whatever' knife earlier.
But now I'm on this ‘Global’ trip. And someone else somewhere is on a chocolate trip. And a third person is on a lemon diet trip to cleanse their bodies of all impurities.
It starts off at one point. With a book. Or a product. Or a website. Or speech. And though logically that book, or product, or whatever—that should be the starting and endpoint—it never is. Once a customer has had a bite of the chocolate, the customer wants more chocolate.
Which of course brings us to a very valid point
What if you give your customers crappy chocolate? Most of us want to hide our ‘so-called secrets'. So we give our customers crappy chocolate.
Heck, that's a stupid plan, eh?
But we're afraid if we give away all our information at once, what's left to give? How do we create a sequence? Won't we end up being like those pathetic one-hit wonders?
Actually no you won't…
For as you come to an end of a speech, a book, a report, etc., you'll realise that there's so much more to talk about.
And if you don't come up with the realisation yourself, your customers will. They'll ask you how to do this or do that. If you've got a product, the customers will want you to develop more products or applications for that product.
And the customers will give you all the ideas you require.
But only if you give them the chance to do so.
If a customer isn't sure how to contact you, then guess what? They won't! Unless you create a community either offline or online. A community that's like a forum or group that meets, and where you’ll get questions. Questions that lead to the next product or service.
And then the sequence will begin to roll out. Your little empire will begin to spread its chocolaty tentacles.
Each topic, which starts off rather small and insignificant, will become bigger, more detailed and quite quickly a sequence will manifest itself.
This is why you must do all of the following:
1) Give your best in your product/service.
2) You must also create a medium where your community can meet in future.
3) Create a scenario or safety zone in which the community can come up with questions and suggestions.
Miss any of these three steps and you'll miss the plot. You can create the best product in the world, but miss out on the community and it's a silly move. Create a community that's figuratively ‘dumb' and afraid to voice their opinion and its silly-time yet again.
Sequences aren't so hard to create. They do take time. They do take effort. But the payoff is big.
So get started on your sequence. Your gooey, yummy, chocolaty sequence! So your customers can chomp, chomp, chomp!
Leave a Reply