If you read Business Card Gallery: Beyond The Template way back in the day, you know that I’m not a big fan of a blank page. Frankly, I hate ‘em.
A blank sheet of paper can be threatening instead of thrilling when there’s a lot at stake or there’s a lot to do. If you’ve ever had writer’s block, you know that putting the first mark on the page can feel like a mammoth, impossible step.
This can also be true on our first encounter with a new process or product. Whether it’s self-help or software or something for dinner, this new thing is a blank page that we stare at and wonder: Where and how do we start?
The smart money is on authors and vendors and service providers who anticipate this question and provide checklists, worksheets, and samples to help new customers get started.
Great examples are everywhere, and so are places where the added value is needed. As you read through these, think on simple tools you could create to add value to your content, give an easy and unintimidating jump start for your service, or provide suggestions on how to use your product.
Add Value to Content With Worksheets
Tonya R. Taylor’s small business Quick Start Toolkit (featured in the photo) walks new business owners through the complexities of selecting a domain name, creating a tagline, setting up their office, and more. Each section has worksheets to record ideas and a detailed checklist for tracking progress.
Best bit: Each worksheet is paired with a completed example, so readers see exactly what to do!
Whether or not you roll with the premise of The Celestine Prophecy, the workbook that accompanies it is worth a look. The Celestine Prophecy: An Experiential Guide has, among other things, exercises for individual and group study, including fill-in-the-blank lists and phrases to encourage active participation and help students connect the book’s concepts with their own experiences.
Jump Start Services With Samples
Newcomers to 37Signals’ online productivity tools won’t be flummoxed by a screen of empty form fields. Instead. Instead, they’re greeted with screenshots of sample projects-in-progress, along with links to guided product tours and fully narrated video tutorials in every section.
Blatant plug: I heart Basecamp!
For consultants, intake questionnaires (verbal or written) seem a great way to start new clients on the process and give you a snapshot of what they’re about. Also, work samples and portfolios do double duty: they demonstrate your skills and also start clients’ gears turning on what you can do for them.
Tip: Anyone can have a portfolio, not just artists and designers. Back when my ex facilitated caving tours, he kept a portfolio of thank you letters and before/after group photos. His book of muddy, elated, tired, smiling kids and “Wow, that was fun, THANKS!!!” letters won him plenty of weekend gigs.
Spoon Up Serving Suggestions
These are my favorite. The overall theme is: Why sell what is, when what could be is far more appealing?
Pretty much every boxed or bottled food product on the grocery store shelves displays a fanciful photo of the product’s “serving suggestion”. And why not? A glob of red condensed paste has nothing on a gleaming bowl of tomato soup with a dollop of sour cream, a sprinkle of chives, and crackers on the side. With a cloth napkin. And flowers on the table.
Another clever trick from the food people: sell us the recipe on the box, not the product. A great example right from my pantry: a bag of yellow corn meal (yawn!) became treasure when I read the Jalapeno Cornbread recipe on the side of the bag. Had to have it.
But my absolute favorite serving suggestions aren’t at the grocery: fully-furnished and perfectly decorated model homes. Sure, the builders could show the unpainted, empty shells. But while some of us see potential in 2500 square feet of blankness, many of us view a bare house with white walls as a helluvalotta work. Far better to show a yummy, finished home for us to imagine our lives in. Example: My dream house *sigh*
Think Closer To Home…
So for BigBrightBulb, this means going back through 89+ articles and seeing where a worksheet, checklist, or sample can add a little sumpin’ useful, jump start a process, or carry an idea from head to hand.
What does this mean for you?
Your thoughts, ideas, comments, and suggestions are thoroughly welcome. Lemme know down below!
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{ 9 comments }
I think your most striking point from this article Crystal is the fact that an example is so extremely powerful, it should be used whenever possible.
And that’s something I think gets forgotten/left out because of that extra effort required to provide one. Lazyness kicks in quite easily in many aveneus - and going that extra meter (it’s not even a Mile so I won’t use the expression to it’s fullest) can honestly make all the difference in the world when it comes to an idea or lesson ’sticking’.
A terrific post but it’s got me a bit confounded. on two points. As a creative consultant, I MUST start your suggestion to offer an in-take questionnaire of some sort — but I can’t let my clients think that I think they’re all alike. More thinking required.
And how do we prevent the competition from using/copying our samples, forms, etc. for their own consultancy?! I swear, in 10 years as a consultant I’ve accidentally trained way to many newcomers who claim they do the same thing I do. ARG!
Another confounding issue is in the sample idea. I’ve created one product that seems easy to copy, but when it’s copied and not executed by one as exacting as I am, it’ll be sh*t and it’s recognizable as my template and that would make me look like sh*t. So I do offer a sample, which they can buy for a pre-paid 1/7th of the service cost — if they want to try to copy it, fine, I’ve minimized my loss; if they see they can’t do as well (inevitably) then I apply the charge as a deposit toward the product. But again — it leaves me open to the copy-cats… any ideas?
@Shawn—Now why did it take me 700 words to say what you said in 20?
You’re hired! Things will move much faster when you’re in charge!
And you’re absolutely right about the laziness factor, and how little time it takes to make big difference. My blog to-do list has long had “make cheat sheets” as an option…never did even one. But now they’re looking like a requirement…
@GirlPie—Gah! A million good points, and you’ve stumped me! Lemme chew on it…more later.
Happy Friday y’all
And thanks for your comments!
Great post mate!
Recent blog post from Joshua: Project Wealthy
Crystal,
You managed to put your finger squarely on the biggest issue I face with web design. We cater largely to body shops who have never had a website and don’t know where to start. They’re looking for a cheap and easy solution, so we offer design templates to get them started, but then we tell them “Okay, now give us five pages of content” and in some cases never hear from them again. They’re overwhelmed! I’m going to work on putting together a system based on some of your suggestions above… I’ll keep you posted.
GirlPie - Definitely a good point, and well worth considering… What if you made this sample form purely accessible upon request? You could even require them to put in some sort of simple ID number (tell them it gives them access to a premier level system or something along those lines), so that only the people you specifically authorize are able to get in.
The benefit here is two-fold: you keep your competitors out, and you also have a means of tracking every time a client or potential client logs in. This would give you more information about who’s really interested and allow you to make more educated and timely follow-up phone calls on sales leads.
Hope that helps…
~Kyle Claypool / OnYourBusiness
@Kyle–Perfect example! With all the businesses being in the same industry, do you expect nearly identical answers? One thing I noticed about some of these samples is the more work you do, the less the readers have to do.
Unfortunately, structured queries like fill-in-the-blank or multiple choice questions (obviously) yield nearly identical answers. A troubling trade…
And thanks for the great answer for GirlPie. I’ve been worrying thoughts on how to protect something so public, and that makes sense…make it less public, and identifying at that. Good stuff!
Whattaya think GirlPie?
Yeah Kyle — you help me see I’m not nuts!
Currently, people are paying for the sample (they do have to enter info and mailing address, since I snail mail it to them — harder for them to “share”) and they do eventually order the product (after trying to do it on their own I guess.)
In your case, you might want to hook up with a few good freelance content writers to send the Body Shop’s filled out questionnaire (that you’ll make up) to them, have them write that 5 pages of content, give the Client a week to approve, you post it, all is well. You can sub-contract new content to them on a weekly or whatever basis, taking your cut before you pay the writer. Or introduce them to each other and take a referral fee, or not. But you’re scaring them off if you don’t offer to help them with content. It’s clear you’re onto that though!
GirlPie,
At what point in the process are your competitors getting access to your materials? Do they pay for the sample and then run off with it? Or is there something else they’re getting their hands on that they’re using to compete with you? It’s a frustrating problem to have…
I love the idea of contracting with freelance copywriters. I’m not sure we’re at a volume yet where that makes sense, but I’m definitely going to keep that in mind…
Recent blog post from Kyle / OnYourBusiness: Tech Tools: Managing and Sharing Your Calendar
Thanks Kyle — My clients have become my competitors! HA! I only instigated the paid sample 2 years ago, before then I mailed a hard copy. But I just saw a website ad for a consultant in my field, she’s a wanna-be who came to me 4 years ago and couldn’t execute her way out of a paper bag! Sorry, guess I’m a BIT irritated about it.
Hey, about the freelancers — maybe ask a great one to write up a sample welcome page copy for a made-up business in your costumer’s field; you’ll post it as an example of what you can offer; she’ll get credit for it and links back to her site; if she gets click-throughs from your site, she can PayPal you a tiny piece of the action when she gets the order. So you can start small with one freebie from the freelancer, you’re posting and referring to her for free, and hopefully everyone including your customers win. But Crystal would know more about that stuff — I’m sure there are warnings I can’t imagine…
Crystal — you always have such helpful Readers!
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