It's no longer good enough to sell just products or services. In simple terms, products can be outsourced to China and services can be outsourced to India. What can't be outsourced are experiences.
Travel agents are a perfect example. Consumers used travel agents because they had access to special information - flights and fares, accommodation discounts, package deals, and the like. Now online travel agencies have equal or better access to those facilities; and consumers themselves often book their own travel. To compete, the travel agent has to offer better experiences - for example, by organising customised tours, special packages and personal service.
How does this affect you?
If you're an expert, infopreneur, eGuru or thought leader, you can no longer rely on what used to work for you. If you're still offering the same products and services you offered five - or even three - years ago, you're probably out of date. Your clients and audiences might not even tell you that, but they will drift, dwindle and disappear.
Google has taken your expertise, Facebook has taken your audiences, and smart phones and tablets have taken their attention.
What are you doing to offer better experiences?
Kevin Kelly, in his book Better Than Free, suggests eight factors that allow you to stand firm in today's highly competitive market. Here are the eight factors, with an example of products you could create to address each factor:
Immediacy (getting something immediately): Provide downloadable versions of your physical products (e.g. a PDF version of a book).Personalisation (creating unique products for each customer): Re-brand your products for specific clients (e.g. reprint a book with a client's logo on the front and a foreword from their CEO).
Interpretation (helping them use what they buy): Add an online course to your in-person workshops, so they get on-going support.
Authenticity (keeping it real): Give people live access to you, even if it's only in a group form (e.g. webinars, teleseminars, coffee chats, Google Hangouts).
Accessibility (being available when they need you): Create an iPhone app or mobile Web site with tips, templates and advice for clients when they need it during their day.
Embodiment (packaging your products differently): Create products in different formats to suit different learning styles.
Patronage (wanting to support you): Keep in touch with people regularly with an e-mail newsletter, webinar series, or some other free service.
Findability (filtering out what isn't relevant): Create a password-protected Web site with high-quality hand-picked resources you've identified for your clients.
All of these things help you become more valuable to your clients, audiences and networks - so you remain relevant and engaging in a highly competitive world.
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