Why Nobody Came To Yoga, Even Though They Asked For It

Do businesses respond to customer needs, or create them?

The realistic answer is both.

But as an industry, we do way too much of the first one.

‘Ask your audience what they want’ and we then treat that as gospel.

It breaks my heart a little when I see coaches asking ‘What content would you love me to post this week’, partly because I think it shows a lack of understanding of your audience and your message.

But also for another reason.

People say they want things they won’t pay for or show up to.

When I was doing corporate well-being work, staff were adamant they wanted yoga, all data pointed back to this as a key deliverable.

Naturally when we put yoga sessions on, no one showed up.

There’s two reasons why asking your audience can bite you on the arse

They are limited by what they know exists - which when you’re the expert, is waaaay less than what you know.

There’s also a well-documented gap between what people say they want, and how they actually spend.

Stated preference and revealed preference are different animals.

The second problem is that if you only build what they ask for, you just chase them.

You end up selling things on their terms, at prices they decide, in categories they already know how to comparison-shop.

You never create the new, aspirational thing they’d not considered before - the thing with no reference price, which can be priced for your leverage.

The created thing is also usually the shit you actually want to do.

So yes - ask your clients what they need SOMETIMES.

Listen properly.

But don’t outsource your product development to people who can only name what already exists, who have no experience or expertise in the topic area