How to Know When You Should Pivot or Start Over in Your Business
There comes a point in every service-based business owner’s journey (especially in this market) where they hit what feels like a huge cement wall. Leads feel harder to come by, prospects feel harder to close, and it seems the only way to get through it is to either demolish the wall or change directions. In this case, that would mean pivoting your offer or scrapping everything you’ve built and starting over.
It may not seem like it, but both are entirely feasible options for you to consider. We hope that in this post, we can help you with that decision and choose the option that makes the most sense for you.
Should You Pivot or Start Over?
There’s really only one reason that you would or should choose to start over, and that’s if you haven’t sold your service at all. If that’s the case, then there’s no audience or familiarity you’ve built, there are no potential referrals or connections headed your way– you pretty much have a clean slate, so there’s virtually no harm in just starting over. With that said, if you do have a network and connections you can reach out to, or if you’re confident in your scope and clients have gotten results, then it’d be best for you to pivot.
What Does it Mean to Pivot?
Pivoting doesn’t have to feel like rocket science. If you have an offer that’s gotten results for your clients and that’s allowed you to build a network, then you can simply keep its core and tweak it to meet your audience where they are. Many service providers think that pivoting means you need to refine it into a premium service, but that may not be the only way to go right now. Instead, what would it look like to have 3 tiers or packages of the same offer? You can have variations of your core offer, but the end result you achieve for your clients should be in the same wheelhouse.
THE PSYCHOLOGY BEHIND PACKAGES
When offering package options, research shows that three is the magic number and customers tend to gravitate naturally towards the middle package. When designing these packages, the lower package needs to cover your costs and still leave a little meat on the bone. This means you have to know exactly how much you absolutely need to make in order to pay the bills. You don’t have to use super clever, obscure names for your packages either. Using whatever synonyms or descriptors you’d like, make it clear that there’s still essentially a small, medium, and large option.
BEFORE YOU PIVOT YOUR ENTIRE OFFER…
Making the decision to pivot comes with the need to understand your current audience, ideal client, and observations you’re making about your current prospects and experiences with them. Do prospects in your market tend to have additional fears, needs, or questions? Before you pivot your entire offer, consider that maybe only your messaging needs to pivot. Perhaps you have the right audience but the wrong messaging or, vice versa, your messaging has been on point but you’re targeting the wrong people.
Testing Your New Offer
Know that any changes you decide to make aren’t permanent. Virtually nothing when it comes to how you run your business is a permanent change. If you aren’t sure if the pivot you’ve made will work, give it time to see if the new messaging or offer structure was the change that you’ve been needing. If you aren’t noticing any results, then you can continue to make tweaks and give them a testing period until you find something that’s working. How does the saying go? If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again!
We know there’s a lot of thought and weighing your options when it comes to thinking about how best to pivot your offer. If you need help developing a strategy plan to make the transition easier, we’d love to chat with you! All you have to do is book a quick call with us over here.
