228 Coaching & Consulting Business courses delivered Online

Customers as well as investors want to know that you’re going to be offering new and different products, services, and enhancements going forward. That’s what your product roadmap communicates. This walk-through details the 1-to-2 year plan that documents short term and long term product goals, taking you from product launch to the future incarnation of your product or service. Learn why your product roadmap is both a business planning tool and your rollout blueprint and why it’s so important to focus on benefits to the customer (not features!)

Sales is all about the hustle. This Microcast provides an overview of the framework used for choosing selling models; it begins with choosing your models, examining what the competition is up to, then examining your costs and checking for consistency between your business strategies and selling models, and solidifying the models you’ll use. These steps are covered in depth in the videos “Direct and Indirect Selling Models,” “Build Your Selling Strategy,” and “Create Your Selling Strategy Framework.”

Gain an understanding of how margins work so that you can choose the right price for your product or service. Having a justified pricing strategy will help you avoid common mistakes such as guessing at price-setting, skipping competitive pricing research, leaving money on the table with a too-low price, or misunderstanding the whole value of what you're offering. Learn how supply and demand for your product or service impact price, how to quantify the level of value you're delivering (don't under-value it!), and how market forces impact your pricing. 

Take advantage of the vast amounts of growth data available to you as you craft the market growth story for your business. By doing market research, computing your compound annual growth rate (CAGR), and validating your positioning, you will create an impressive market growth story. This market growth Microcast will help you get it done. Covered are: Deciding where you plan to sell your goods or services, identifying which segments of the market apply to your business, using historical growth rates, and how to validate your growth assumptions.

Time to put pen to paper—or fingers to keyboard. Take a look inside the Prep Worksheet that prepares you to write the pricing strategy section of your business plan. The key to success is taking the time necessary to deeply understand your business and be prepared to run it—use this workshop and Prep Worksheet to do just that.

Contrary to popular belief, having plenty of competitors is a good sign – that's what makes a thriving market. This course delves deep into the competition, with strategies for identifying and evaluating competitors and classifying them to discover where opportunities lie to fill gaps in the marketplace.

How and why customers perceive the unique value of your product or service is something integrated into all aspects of your customer communication—from your website to marketing and social media to packaging. This lesson explains how that works by looking at a few top brands and how they communicate their unique value propositions.

What do you want to achieve with your marketing strategy? Your marketing objectives are the basis for all of your marketing activities and the foundation of your marketing strategy. This Microcast details what every entrepreneur should measure, where to target your customers, and how to evaluate the marketing methods of competitors. You will also learn how to decide what goals and measurements are right for your business—setting specific sales growth goals, landing partnerships, expanding distribution, and more.

One of the most important concepts of your product strategy is identifying your minimal viable product or service (MVP or MVS). This walk-through takes you through a process for identifying what key qualities of your product or service comprise your MVP. Once you identify the minimum offering that addresses your customers’ needs, you can position your business for launch.

These days, entrepreneurs have more ways than ever to sell their products or services, including directly to consumers online. The trick is to identify which selling strategies will yield the right mix of profits and market share. While using direct sales methods enables you to pocket more of the margin and establish direct connections with your customers, indirect sales methods can spread your products far and wide quickly and help your brand gain a foothold fast. This learning stream delves into individual selling strategies, outlining the advantages and disadvantages of each, and provides a framework for evaluating which are most appropriate for your business. Tips for connecting your selling strategies to your marketing strategy and incorporating selling models into your company financials are also covered. Extensive worksheets and exercises enable you to identify the sales techniques that will win customers most profitably.