What Infusionsoft, Coffee, Keurig and Water Bottles Have Taught Me

Years back, well before I got into the Infusionsoft and Internet marketing, I worked as a programmer at the IBM Boca Raton labs. It was the birthplace of the IBM PC. I had hired a “right out of college grad” from Seattle and we were talking about her new life in Boca. She told me, “The biggest thing I miss is the coffee. There are no coffee houses here in Boca.”
Now she was talking my language. I was and still am Cuban and a hardcore Cuban espresso lover. She told me you could get espressos, lattes, cappuccinos and all sorts of coffee at these places and hang out with your friends. I told her I missed the Cuban coffee counters in my hometown Miami. I could now only brew it at home.
"I really miss those twenty-five cent expressos."
"A quarter,” she said. “The price of coffee at these coffee houses is around $2.”
“What!!” I replied. “It will never catch on.” This from the same guy that thought water bottles were just a fad and now dares to peddle his Infusionsoft and Internet marketing expertise.
There really is an Infusionsoft and Internet marketing lesson here so please be patient.
Fast forward to today and a more current coffee trend - Keurig machines. My wife insisted on getting one. My thinking was how ridiculous to pay someone for these little brewing cups that produce the same coffee I can brew myself for far less.
Well here I am writing this article with my Keurig brewed morning brew and am nowhere near ready to go back to the old way. It’s so convenient. In the past, I held off on drinking a second and third cup because of the work involved. Now I walk up, pop in the little cup and walk away contented.
Keurig gives me value.
This Infusionsoft consultant’s lesson is you need to find something people want. Then you need todeliver it in a way that provides the buyer with some new value. You don’t have to invent something new. You have to present it in a different way or combine it with some new concept that wasn’t there before.
For the coffee houses, it was the social experience and the lure of coffee that wasn’t available in other places. For water bottles it was the convenience of clean tasting water without having to look for a water fountain. (They’ve got to deal with the environmental issues surrounding the disposal of the bottles, but that’s another issue.)
So what’s the Infusionsoft lesson? You must come up with a way to deliver value in your industry or area of specialization. This can mean different things to different business owners.
I have a client that took the Jewish matchmaking “Yenta” concept many of us didn’t know existed until watching Fiddler on the Roof and took it online. Professionals are busy people. They don’t have time to date in the traditional sense. She provides an online course and coaching to get people connected with “The One for Them.”
I’ve got another client that has been providing innovative training techniques to personal trainers. It comes with a certification. Originally, they required that people travel to their facility in Phoenix for the training. They were extremely successful doing that. Their video training equivalent now provides an even more successful option.
Just think how busy a small business owner and personal trainer needs to be to make a good living. How much time do they have to pay for the expense and time to travel for training? Think of how convenient it would be to watch this new set of videos in the comfort of their home on their schedule (maybe late at night or early morning) and still have phone or Skype access to a coach for answering questions.
Both of these business owners address the same audience as before. They use material they had before in other formats. Now they make it available so:
- it's more convenient,
- allows them to leverage themselves better and
- reach audiences they couldn’t access before.
Considering my dismal track record, I’m through predicting trends in general. I am, however, predicting this Infusionsoft and Internet marketing thing is here to stay. That's because it works. The two examples I show here are winners. Think about what these approaches mean to the competitor. They may have thought, “It’s just a fad. It will never catch on.” The competitor could fall the way of Kodak fell apart missing the digital photography revolution. They should have dominated that opportunity given their position in photography twenty years back, but the completely missed out.
Infusionsoft powered companies assisted by Infusionsoft and Internet marketing savvy consultants (like the ones we have here at Larry Jacob Internet Marketing )is a trend I’m betting on for my business. It makes a huge difference for those that use this as a business enabler and one I know can assist them in transforming their businesses into something no one thought possible just a few years back.
Hope this helps.