Copywriter Frank Kern has a point. When you’re offering a product or service, there are three crucial pillars that support your success:
Technology
Marketing
Your Silver (aka Magic) Bullet
The problem is that most business owners and entrepreneurs spend most of their time on the first two pillars because both help get the word out. But the pillar you should really spend the most time on is Your Silver Bullet.
Your Silver Bullet is what actually brings in the money, honey.
Your Silver Bullet is the rock-solid quality and value of your offering!
You need to be able to define it and refine it to make sure it’s The Best Answer to your ideal client’s pain, problem or predicament–or the path to his or her ultimate pleasure. Unless you do this and are fully convinced, yourself, that you have something world-changing to offer, the other two pillars can get eyeballs looking in on your offer, even buying it, but what happens next can shoot you in the foot if your solution doesn’t deliver the claims you’ve made about it.
I’m among very few professional copywriters who simply will not agree to write copy for shoddy products or services. When I decided to hang my shingle as a professional wordsmith, I promised myself I would be a gatekeeper first and a service provider second.
Yes, this means I have to work harder to find business owners and entrepreneurs whose goods and services I can support wholeheartedly, but I also sleep well at night. This way I can fully invest in converting browsers into buyers: I’m not double-minded about the value of whatever it is I’m pitching.
In networking meetings, I frequently say, “If I can get as drunk on your cork as you are about what you offer, I can write for you.” This is true–and it’s the first hurdle–but what you offer also has to pass muster with me. It has to have real merit, great value, and the ability to change lives for the better. If I can see evidence of your product’s (or service’s) transformational abilities shining in your eyes or coming through in your speech, I feel pretty sure we can make it work.
So The Magic/Silver Bullet is what must come first–before you put the technology in place, before you market what you offer. Because you won’t be doing yourself any favors to market what you offer if your customers will quickly discover that your product or service is sub-standard or that it doesn’t do what you said it would.
If you disappoint the people who buy, you may as well pack it in. Buyers are savvy these days, and they’re potentially hazardous to the health of your business: they can just as easily post scathing reviews that plummet your future sales as they can “viral sneeze” you into unprecedented stratospheres of success.
So… the question becomes: “Is my Silver Bullet sensational? Does it deliver delightful results? Do my customers jump up and down like eager puppies because of the results they get?”
If the answer is yes, you have the pillar in place that you need to make the other two pillars work well for you.
If the answer is no, then focus on making sure your product or service is the very best it can be given your personal and/or professional limitations. (This way, you won’t feel double-minded about what you offer. You can explain your limitations without feeling ashamed or unworthy of your prospect’s business.) Unless you do this, whatever else you do will only bring pain and frustration to your doorstep.
Given this information, are you now feeling paralyzed, like this is a hill too steep to climb? Relax! Successful people climb with humility, knowing they’ll always feel they fall a little short of the ideal. Why? Because nobody and nothing is ever perfect and nobody has THE ONE AND ONLY SILVER/MAGIC BULLET in your niche.
Your job is to find the segment of your vast potential audience that is most likely to receive incalculable benefit from your product or service and focus on them as you market your solution. Satisfy them, and they’ll help you get more sales and clients!
