Today, I want to talk to you very briefly about the six P’s of small business.
Some people call them the six P’s of marketing, or the six milestones along the customer journey, you can call it anything, but we’ll talk about the six P’s.
P #1 – Project
What is the point of all of this? What is your project? It might be, for example, some new products that you are developing.
So, with that new product you have vision and goals, where you’re setting outcomes and milestones you expect to reach.
To begin anything you must have a vision attached to that project, because everything starts as a thought.
To reiterate, the first P is the “Project”, the overall objective of your current actions.
P #2 – Problem
The “Problem” refers to that you are solving for people. It’s why people come to you; you solve a problem that they have.
What does it look like?
For your clients, what is their “pain point”?
It can be discomfort or a puzzle, something that they want solved and you’re going to give them that solution.
They say that people buy for two reasons;
1) They move towards pleasure
2) They move away from pain
You’re going to give them something that makes them feel really good or you’re going to give them something that relieves the pain and discomfort they’ve got.
For example, for me I work with small business owners who are working hard to get their business succeeding online, so that’s who I solve problems for. They’re overwhelmed with social media, they’re not sure where to start with their email marketing or setting up Facebook business manager, all those sort of things to do with digital marketing. I solve those problems.
So, number two is “what is the problem you solve?”.
P #3 – Person
Everything begins and ends with the “prospect”, or, the perfect person.
Sometimes called your ideal client avatar, it refers to the people in the niche that you serve. Ultimately though, you are creating a product or a service for a person.
We say we sell to a business, but businesses can’t talk to you, people talk to you.
So, you’ve got your target people.
For me, I work with entrepreneurs. My ideal client is a woman between the age of 40 and 65, maybe, and some very enlightened men who were really switched on, and I actually call her ambitious Anne or entrepreneur Ellen. Everything I write or I create, I have her in mind and I think “what can I do that will help her?” or “how is this going to help her?”
For example, using the six P’s, she’s going to have a quick checklist to use for her business.
P #4 – Platform
The next P is all about getting on the right platform to suit your perfect person.
When my business in the corporate world went through explosive growth we set up a Facebook page, we set up a Facebook group and it was all very good and well.
We did all the right things, we had quotes and the like, we were doing everything we need to do. Every day we worked on it.
I think it was about seven months in and our results were still pathetic, really pathetic, and so what we did, long story short, we moved across to LinkedIn.
Within days we had thousands of contacts. We learned that we had been on the wrong platform!
Our ideal clients for that corporate side of the business are not on Facebook, they’re on LinkedIn.
That’s where it’s good to talk to your ideal person or prospect, ask them and find out which social media platform they want? which your favorite social media platform? where do you spend your time? Then get on the right platform.
P #5 – Product
What exactly is it that you are selling? and do they need it?
So often small businesses fall down very, very quickly because they haven’t done the research and there isn’t actually a market for what they are trying to sell.
People don’t want it, so you must have a product that people actually want. A product that transforms their life in some way, they use your product and their life transforms.
When the problem is solved, they feel great, so it’s really important that you talk to them and you make sure it is what they want.
A story for another day is give them what they want and then sell them what they need.
But for now, you need to find out what it is they want and if there is a genuine need in the market for what you’re selling.
P #6 – Process
Process, you could also call it Path.
What exactly is the process, step by step, that is going to take your customer from “hello” or “I’ll have your freebie” or “gee, I like your website” or “I’ve done your quiz” or “somebody mentioned you” to paying for your product.
That is your customer journey.
That is your process, that is the path.
So there you have, the six P’s of business.