Product innovation in pandemic times

In a ‘normal’ business lifecycle, your business and proposition would evolve over time, and specifically since the early 2000’s you would have built ‘digital’ into your future planning. Today, as of writing, the global commercial world has had the rug pulled from under its feet by the onslaught and consequences of the 2020 pandemic.

I asked Shelley Röstlund, a Digital Marketing Consultant who works with businesses on their product ecosystems, to walk through some crucial steps every business should be taking in reviewing their existing product/service structure in a ‘no-touch’ society.

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In early 2019, I read the 2018 Lloyds Bank Business and Charity Digital Skills Index report and was astounded to learn that in my region of the East of England:

• 70% of SME’s do not want social media and marketing skills(with 18% having these skills already, and a mere 12% wanting it for the future)
• 73% of SME”s do not want data and analytics skills(with 16% having these skills already, and only 11% wanting it for the future)
• 74% of SME’s do not want strategic and leadership skills(with 13% having these skills already, and 13% wanting it for the future)

(You can read my full blog post where I raised the worry back in May 2019 about a puddle of muck small businesses are going to find themselves in if they don’t pay attention to digital).

And then, we all woke up to 23^rd March 2020 (UK) to a world that no longer could bring people together in-person or have them work near each other. For a 1^st world country who thought we ‘had it together’ – we clearly didn’t.

My work since then has been about fast tracking business owners in gaining a digital mindset and reshaping their reality. In this post I am going to share some crucial steps that you can pick up and implement yourself in your business. I highly recommend you do this, sooner rather than later.

STEP 1: SOURCE ONLINE/DIGITAL CHAMPIONS

In order to move to a completely digital business, or a mixed model delivery of your product or service (mix of in-person and online), you will need to have people on hand to help decision making and implementation. If you don’t have that in house, you need to work with a consultant or an agency to help you. You don’t know what you don’t know.

There are so many amazing and simple digital solutions on the market to solve your aches and pains, but you need someone to source them or let you know that they exist.

Surround yourself with solid people who have a digital mindset and a good commercial head on their shoulders that you can partner with. You don’t want magic bullets – you want solid advice and sensible solutions to moving you into this new business world.

STEP 2: WHAT IS TRANSFERRABLE ONLINE?

The easiest place to start is with what you were doing before the pandemic and reviewing which parts are quite easily transferable online. Challenge your reality by asking these questions:

• Where do you need a human to “do” something? (I don’t mean that you are going to be swapping humans for robots, I mean what touchpoint can you identify where you need someone to do something to aid your sales/transactional process)
• Can that “doing” be converted to an online version of it?
• What is the most responsible and effective way to convert this (asap)? Change is scary for customers, so we need to keep on eye on how you do this. We are going for frictionless change which shapes a better and easier way to do something.

Some things to consider:

• Payments (look at no-touch integrations like: online orders and payments, Apple Pay and Google Pay at tills) – relative to industry
• Packaging (what can you do to reduce the ‘touching’; be environmentally friendly; but also protect your product or service) – relative to industry
• Supply chain (is there any way you can improve how you source what you need in order to deliver the product or service) – relative to industry
• Customer service/support (how you can help without treating people like they are lepers and also protecting your staff?) – relative to industry

STEP 3: RE-SHAPE / RE-ENGINEERING

This is often the trickiest part. If you are stuck with this, you need an outsider to bounce off of (see STEP 1). The 2020 pandemic rocked so many industries and across the whole world – all in one foul swoop.

Changing what you are doing today, in exchange for money, has been every single business’ focus across the world. Imagine that! Normally this would be happening for different businesses at different times in their business lifecycle, but now – every single business is having to reshape (almost overnight).

That means human behaviour has changed so much in a short space of time, it has also affected trends and patterns of buying decisions and the click journey. Some of those will be short term, but others will remain.

Look at what it is that you do for your customers – as a service or product.

Ask yourself:

1. What immediately fell off the table when March 2020 hit?
   • Is this something people still want in this new post-pandemic world? (NOTE: if not – stop selling it)
   • Is this something people do want, but supplying it was too complicated in a no-touch society? (NOTE: needs evolving)

2. What was still selling?
   • Did you end up selling more of this? (NOTE: Look at how you can make this even more cost-effective, and thereby improving profitability)
   • Is there something you could easily add to this offering to increase the basket price value (or client lifetime value) – i.e. improve the ave sale

3. Which service or product gave you the most aggravation in terms of finding a way to supply/deliver it?
   • Is this something people still want in this new post-pandemic world? (NOTE: if not – stop selling it)
   • Which parts of this product or service could you simplify without reducing value for the customer? (Or actually increase the value for the customer)
   • Is there a tool or solution that could help you overcome this aggravation?
   • How could you up the anty on this service or product? (Maybe you have been thinking for years that you need to update how or why you deliver this product/service).

For me, I reckon the pandemic was one big massive test on the consumer world – to almost reset people’s buying habits. People are (hopefully) rethinking why they need stuff, and how frequently they need it. That can only be good from an environmental perspective.

STEP 4: PLAN AN ECO-SYSTEM OF PRODUCTS OR SERVICES

My favourite resource to explain this is Daniel Priestley’s work. He is a partner and co-founder of Dent Global, a business that basically helps businesses to understand this concept of having different categories of products or services which gives value at different points of the buyer’s journey. Their big point though is to focus in on creating a Key Person of Influence within the business which is drawing attention to the business (which then has this ecosystem of products working for them at different levels).

I highly suggest investing some time in reading his books. You can see his books here > https://www.dent.global/publications/ (look at Books Tab). The one that is most specific to product eco-systems in the “Oversubscribed” book. He has refreshed the book in Feb 2020, so make sure you buy that version.

His biggest premise is the 7-11-4 rule. People need 7 hours of experiencing you to build a know, like and trust factor – where they have completely decided you are what they want to invest in or buy from. Then, based on Google’s ZMOT (Zero Moment of Truth), they want to experience you over at least 11 different touchpoints, in 4 different locations.

When you look at creating a product eco-system, you are critically looking at creating:

• Category 1: free resources (“gifts”) which don’t require any email address or purchase. (Example: podcast, YouTube videos, blog, Facebook Live Show)
• Category 2: low-entry products for prospects (maybe under £100) which are easy to buy, and are a valuable extension of sharing your knowledge or experience (Example: book, mini-video series, intro online course)
• Category 3: High-ticket core product (this is a transformational service or product of some kind that solves your target customer’s problem from A to Z). This is a highly profitable product (Example: A 12-month programme that builds in 1-2-1 coaching, checklists, training, tools and accountability)
• Category 4: recurring income lower margin, higher volume product for prospects. This an easy-to-provide recurring income product that is suitable for your existing customers. (Example: servicing for cars, MOT’s, membership, subscription service, etc)

Your next steps

My goal for you after reading this post is to take action. Some of this you will have been mulling over this in the last few years but, my friend, it is time to take action. If you ignore the massive shift we are in the middle of in the business world – you are in serious danger of not surviving the next decade.

Buckle up – we are in for a bumpy ride. I’m actually quite excited to be honest, because finally everyone has woken up to the fact that evolving their business for a digital world is a priority.

I can help. Feel free to connect with Shelley on LinkedIn or schedule a Discovery Call to talk about your evolution. (Let me know you read this post in your introduction).

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Our guest posts are really valuable to our readers – expanding on many of the subjects that they need to get their heads around in the course of running and building their businesses. A big thank to you to Shelley for taking the time to put together this post to give you some insight into some of the priorities that smaller businesses need to focus on in the coming months and years.

Shelley works with us here at Clifford Towers and has helped us to enhance our digital skills and be more consistent in our communications with our clients. Harbour 32 is a strategic digital marketing agency based in Northamptonshire. You can check out their website; join them on Facebook or follow Shelley on Twitter.