Page 43 - The $100 Startup_ Reinvent the Way You Make a Living, Do What You Love

This kind of analysis applies even to businesses that you might think of as

boring or commodity-based. Michael Hanna (the mattress guy) talked with me
about selling a mattress to a family with an infant and then seeing them return
two years later with their three-year-old, who now needed to upgrade to her first
bed. This kind of story, which Michael tries to communicate frequently, is much
more interesting than talking about box springs or mattress ratings.

Overall, the more a business can focus on core benefits instead of boring
features, the more customers will connect … and purchase. As you think about
how to apply the $100 Startup model to your own quest for freedom, these three
strategies will help.

Strategy 1: Dig Deeper to Uncover Hidden Needs
You might think it’s obvious that restaurant patrons don’t want to wander back to
the kitchen and make their own meals, but sometimes what people say they want
and what they actually want are different things. Kyle Hepp, a wedding
photographer who travels the world from her home base in Santiago, Chile,
learned that sometimes you have to look deeper. Kyle’s clients tend to be young
and hip, and they’re drawn to her work because it is non-traditional. Sometimes
they even say they don’t want any traditional wedding shots. “We’re not into
old-school,” was how one couple put it. Kyle agrees and spends her time at the
wedding getting fun, candid shots that she knows the couple will like.

But that’s not all. Having done this for a while, Kyle knows that what her
clients want and what they say they want may be different—and she also knows
that the families of the bride and groom may have preferences of their own.