how to differentiate your business
Categorieshow to differentiate your businessBy Evunn

How to Differentiate Your Business: A Practical Strategy | EVUNN

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THE PROBLEM: I know how I want my offer to be positioned, but I don't know what would make the right customer choose it over the alternatives.

Identify why your best fit customer should choose your offer and not the other alternatives before you start marketing

Step 5: Define Your Differentiation

Your Stage 1 access includes all the EVUNN Toolkits you’ll need to do the work. Don’t just read. Use them as you move through each step.

 

By this time, if you have been implementing the phase 3 steps, you should now already have:

  • A Best-Fit Customer Profile

  • A defined Buying Situation

  • A Customer Alternative & Decision Landscape

  • A Positioning Blueprint

But your customer can still ask: Why should I choose this offer instead of the other options available to me?

That is the question differentiation must answer. Differentiation is not about proving that you are better at everything. It is not I have more experience or I provide excellent service or I have a unique framework.

Those statements may be true. But the important question is:

What is meaningfully different about this offer that this particular customer actually values?

Your objective is to identify the differences that can make your offer meaningfully preferable to the alternatives.

 

The EVUNN Mindset Shift

Now, you go from How am I different? → What difference matters to the customer?

Naturally, experts or professionals look at differentiation from their own perspective.

They ask: what makes me special? But the customer is asking: Why should I care?

Your credentials, experience and expertise may be impressive but they only become commercially useful when they create something the customer values.

So don’t ask how can I make myself look different? Ask: what can I change, improve or create that makes this offer more valuable to my best-fit customer?

This is the difference between being different and being meaningfully different.



Recommended Book for Step 5: Blue Ocean Strategy

Blue Ocean strategy

 

Author: W. Chan Kim & Renée Mauborgne

Time Investment: 6+ hours (Audiobook) 

Listen to Audiobook with Libro |Buy the Book a the Bookshop

 

The Big Idea from The Blue Ocean Strategy

Instead of competing only on the factors everyone in the market already competes on, you can rethink the value you provide by eliminating, reducing, raising or creating factors that change the customer’s experience.

This book speaks to the problem a lot of  expert-based businesses like coaches, consultants, freelancers and professional service providers are facing because most of  them compete on the same things:

  • Experience

  • Expertise

  • Credentials

  • Personal attention

  • Quality

  • Price

  • Number of services

  • Years in business

The result is often a crowded market where everyone says: I’m better.

Blue Ocean Strategy gives you another question: what could we change about the value we provide so the customer has a more compelling reason to choose us?

 

What Business Problem Does The Blue Ocean Strategy Solve?

It takes care of: My market is crowded, and I don’t know how to create meaningful differentiation without simply claiming that I’m better.

The Blue Ocean Strategy helps you examine the factors on which customers currently compare competing offers.

Then you can ask four powerful questions:

  • Eliminate: What can we remove because customers don’t really need it?
  • Reduce : What can we provide at a lower level because the market is over-serving customers?
  • Raise: What should we increase because customers genuinely value it?
  • Create: What could we introduce that customers would value but existing alternatives don’t provide?

These questions become a practical way to discover customer-relevant differentiation.

 

Should I Read It Now?

Yes, your objective is to use the book to identify meaningful ways your offer could create and communicate distinctive customer value.

You are not trying to create an entirely new industry.

You are trying to find a stronger value position within the market you have chosen.

 

 

Which Parts of Blue Ocean Strategy Matter Most for this Step? Focus on these:

 

Part One: Blue Ocean Strategy

Chapter 1: Creating Blue Oceans (IMPORTANT READ)

Focus on the central idea of creating a different value proposition rather than competing only within existing market rules.

The important question here is: Are we simply competing on the same factors as everyone else?

 

Chapter 2: Analytical Tools and Frameworks (MOST IMPORTANT)

Pay particular attention to:

  • Strategy Canvas : Use this to understand the factors customers currently compare across competing alternatives.
  • Four Actions Framework: This gives you the core questions: Eliminate, Reduce, Raise, Create

 

Chapter 3: Reconstruct Market Boundaries (SKIM for Now)

This is useful for learning how businesses can look beyond obvious competitors and rethink the boundaries of a market.

You don’t need to master the entire framework at this stage.

 

Chapter 4: Focus on the Big Picture, Not the Numbers (SKIP FOR NOW)

Useful for broader strategic planning, but not necessary for deciding how your expert-based offer should differentiate itself.

 

Chapter 5: Reach Beyond Existing Demand (SKIM)

Useful for thinking about customers outside your current target market.

But your immediate objective is to strengthen the offer for your Best-Fit Customer.

 

Chapter 6: Get the Strategic Sequence Right (SKIM)

Useful background for thinking about whether your proposed changes make sense strategically.

Not essential to the immediate execution exercise.

 

Part Three: Executing Blue Ocean Strategy (SKIP FOR NOW)

Chapters 7–10 deal primarily with organizational execution, alignment and renewal.

Those issues become more relevant as a business grows.

You don’t need them to complete your initial differentiation strategy.

 

 

What Should I Ignore For Now?

Don’t turn this into a competition to invent something nobody else has.

You don’t need:

  • A bizarre business model

  • A complicated proprietary framework

  • A new industry category

  • A strange pricing model

  • A long list of artificial differentiators

 

Differentiation does not mean being different for the sake of being different. Your difference must matter to the customer.

 

Your EVUNN Action

Build Your Differentiation & Value Innovation Map. To do that, bring forward your outputs from: Step 3 (Customer Alternative & Decision Landscape) and. Step 4 (Positioning Blueprint)

You are now going to identify where your offer can create meaningful customer value that the alternatives do not provide in the same way. Follow these steps:

 

1. Identify What Customers Currently Compare

Start with the alternatives your customer considers.

List the factors they appear to use when deciding between those alternatives.

For example:

  • Price

  • Speed

  • Expertise

  • Personalisation

  • Convenience

  • Support

  • Implementation

  • Access

  • Flexibility

  • Depth

  • Results

  • Risk

  • Reputation

Use the evidence from your earlier research where possible. Don’t simply guess what customers care about.

 

2. Map The Current Market

Look at the alternatives side by side.

Ask: What does the market currently over-emphasise?

For example, most competitors compete heavily on:

  • More content

  • More features

  • More hours

  • More certifications

  • Lower price

  • More services

This raises an important question: Are customers actually getting more value from all of this?

 

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EVUNN Mindset Checkpoint

Are you trying too hard to be different?

When  most experts hear the word differentiation, they sometimes feel they must invent something nobody else has. Don’t start thinking: I need a proprietary framework or I need something nobody else does.

Your goal is not to be unique. Your goal is to be meaningfully preferable to the right customer.

Sometimes your strongest differentiation is simply:

  • A narrower customer

  • A better process

  • A faster path

  • Greater personalisation

  • Better implementation

  • A more convenient experience

  • Lower risk

  • A more relevant specialisation

Ask: What can I do differently that this customer genuinely values?

Optional reading: The War of Art by Steven Pressfield. Listen to Audiobook with Audible Free Trial

Use this only if you find yourself stuck because you believe you need a completely original idea before you can move forward.

This is a mindset checkpoint, not a required reading assignment.

 

 

Your Step 5 Output

By the end of this step, you should have a DIFFERENTIATION STRATEGY that Contains:

Competitive Alternatives
↓
Customer Decision Factors
↓
Current Market Value Factors
↓
Eliminate
↓
Reduce
↓
Raise
↓
Create
↓
Potential Differentiators
↓
Customer Value Created
↓

Core Differentiators

↓

Differentiation Statement

 

Find What Makes You Meaningfully Different

It’s time to stop saying you’re different and figure out how you actually are.

 

 

🔓Use the  EVUNN Execution Toolkit: Differentiation & Value Innovation Map

Don’t compete by simply claiming that you’re better.

The EVUNN Differentiation & Value Map helps you identify what you can do differently, what your customers actually value, and which differences are strong enough to matter in the market

Don’t claim to be different without giving customers a real reason to choose you.

 

 

Get the Differentiation & Value Map + every other Stage 1 Toolkit for 12 months, plus access to the EVUNN Doers Community.

₦5,500 today.

Follow the roadmap. Use the tools. Do the work.

 

. 🔓 GET YOUR 1-YEAR EXECUTION PASS

 

What Should I Do Next?

You began Step 5 knowing: I have chosen the position I want my offer to own. You now leave knowing  why your best-fit customer should prefer your offer over the alternatives.

Right now, you should have:

A Best-Fit Customer

↓

A Buying Situation

↓

An Alternative Landscape

↓

A Market Position

↓

And now, a Meaningful Differentiation Strategy

At this point though, your differentiation is still a strategic decision. The next challenge is communication.

Your customer may not automatically understand your positioning or differentiation simply because you’ve defined them internally.

So the next question becomes: How do I communicate this clearly enough that the right customer immediately understands why this offer matters to them?

 

Next? Step 6: Build The Core Message

How do I explain my offer so the right customer understands its value and wants to know more?

 

GO TO STEP 6
define the position you want your offer to own in the customer's mind
Categorieshow to position a product or serviceBy Evunn

How to Position a Product or Service: A Practical Framework | EVUNN

Make Your EVUNN Journey Personal

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THE PROBLEM: I understand my best-fit customer, what triggers them to act and what alternatives they consider, but I don't know what position my offer should own in their mind.

Your product should take a particular position in the mind of your target customers if consistent sales is your goal

Step 4: Define Your Position

Your Stage 1 access includes all the EVUNN Toolkits you’ll need to do the work. Don’t just read. Use them as you move through each step.

 

You now know: Who your customer is. When they become ready to act. What alternatives they consider.

Now, its time to ask this critical question:

Given everything I know, how should my offer be understood in the market?

This is where positioning begins. Positioning is not simply choosing a tagline. It is not writing: I am a business coach who helps entrepreneurs grow. And it is also not listing everything you can do.

Positioning is deciding the context in which your offer should be understood, and the specific value it should be associated with.

Your goal is to make it easier for the right customer to think: This is specifically for someone like me, and this is why it is different from the alternatives I could choose.

 

The EVUNN Mindset Shift

From How do I describe what I do? → What should I be known for?

The natural thing most experts do is to position themselves or their offer around their credentials. You might say: I’m a lawyer with 15 years’ experience or I’m a certified leadership coach.

These may establish credibility, but they don’t necessarily establish a market position.

Your position is about the meaning the customer attaches to your offer. So instead of asking: How do I describe my expertise, ask:

What should this particular customer immediately associate with my offer?

 


Recommended Book for this Step: Obviously Awesome

obviously awesome

 

Author: April Dunford

Time Investment: 2+ hours (Audiobook) 

Listen to Audiobook with Libro|Buy the Book at the Bookshop

 

The Big Idea from Obviously Awesome

Positioning is about creating the right context for customers to understand the value of your offer.

The same offer can appear ordinary in one context and highly valuable in another.

Obviously Awesome’s positioning process helps you move through:

Customers

↓

Competitive Alternatives

↓

Unique Attributes

↓

Customer Value

↓

Customers Who Care Most

↓

Market Frame of Reference

↓

Position

This is exactly the sequence you need.

 

What Business Problem Does this Book Solve?

It solves: My offer is valuable, but I haven’t figured out the context that makes its value obvious to the right customer.

An expert may have many capabilities, but putting all of them into the market creates a vague offer. For example: I help businesses with strategy, leadership, marketing and operations.

The customer has to figure out: Which problem is this person particularly good at solving?

Positioning gives the customer a clearer answer.

 

 

Should I Read Obviously Awesome Now?

Yes. This is the best time to read Obviously Awesome (after completing Steps 1–3) because you already have the raw material the positioning process requires.

Don’t read it as a branding book. Read it as a market decision-making framework.

Your question while reading should be: How do I determine the context in which my offer becomes most valuable and relevant?

 

 

Which Parts of Obviously Awesome Matter Most to you now? Focus on these:

 

Part I: What Is Positioning (ESSENTIAL)

Positioning as Context -This is foundational. Understand why positioning isn’t simply a statement about what you sell.

The context in which the customer evaluates your offer changes how they perceive its value.

The Five (plus One) Components of Effective Positioning (ESSENTIAL)

Understand the components that make positioning effective. 

 

Part II: The 10-Step Positioning Process

Step 1 – Understand the Customers Who Love Your Product (ESSENTIAL)

This connects directly to the Best-Fit Customer Profile you created in Step 1. The goal isn’t to appeal to everyone.

It’s to understand who is most likely to see the value in what you’ve created.

Step 2: Form a Positioning Team (SKIP) Not necessary now.

Skip Step 3 For Now

Step 3: Align Your Positioning Vocabulary and Let Go of Your Positioning Baggage

Step 4: List Your True Competitive Alternatives (ESSENTIAL)

This directly connects to Step 3. Your positioning must be understood relative to the alternatives your customer actually considers.

Step 5: Isolate Your Unique Attributes or Features (ESSENTIAL)

Identify what genuinely makes your offer different. Don’t simply list your credentials. Look at the actual attributes of your offer.

Step 6: Map the Attributes to Value Themes (ESSENTIAL)

This is where you move from what’s different about us to why does that difference matter to the customer?

A difference without customer value isn’t useful positioning.

 

Step 7: Determine Who Cares a Lot (ESSENTIAL)

This is so important for your expert business. You don’t need everyone to care equally. You need to identify who cares enough about this particular value to choose your offer?

 

Step 8: Find a Market Frame of Reference (ESSENTIAL)

This is one of the most important sections for Step 4.  Ask: What context or category should the customer use to understand this offer?

The frame of reference influences what customers compare you against and how they interpret your value.

 

Step 9: Layer On a Trend (SKIM / OPTIONAL)

A trend can strengthen positioning in some businesses. But don’t force this.

An expert-based business doesn’t need a trend to have strong positioning.

 

Step 10: Capture Your Positioning (ESSENTIAL)

This is where you document the positioning decision so you can use it consistently.

 

Listen to Audiobook with Libro|Buy the Book at the Bookshop

 

What Should I Ignore For Now?

Don’t spend time perfecting:

  • Website headlines

  • Taglines

  • Social media bios

  • Sales copy

  • Advertisements

  • Content hooks

Those come later.

At this stage, you’re making a strategic positioning decision.

 

 

Your EVUNN Action

Build Your Positioning Blueprint

Bring forward your three previous outputs from the last 3 steps ( if you are an EVUNN premium user, the first 3 steps will be automatically inputed in the toolkit. No need for manual inputs): 

Step 1

Best-Fit Customer Profile

Step 2

Buying Situation Profile

Step 3

Customer Alternative & Decision Landscape

Now use them to determine your position.

1. Define the Customer You Want to Position For

Ask: Who is most likely to care deeply about the value my offer creates?”

Don’t simply use your broad target market. Identify the customer for whom your offer has the strongest relevance.

 

2. Identify the Competitive Context

Bring forward the alternatives from Step 3.

Ask: What would this customer compare my offer against?

Your position needs to make sense within this competitive context.

3. Identify Your Unique Attributes

Ask: What does my offer genuinely do differently?

Look at:

  • Approach

  • Method

  • Process

  • Specialisation

  • Expertise

  • Delivery

  • Experience

  • Speed

  • Convenience

  • Personalisation

  • Risk reduction

Don’t manufacture differences.

Identify genuine attributes.

 

Get the rest of the EVUNN execution steps in Premium.

EVUNN Action Steps, Doers Community & Execution Toolkits are for paid users.

Get the rest of the Action Steps for this step, plus all Stage 1 Action Steps and EVUNN Execution Toolkits with 12 months of access.

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EVUNN Mindset Checkpoint

Are you afraid to narrow your position? You may think, but I can help many different people or I don’t want to exclude anyone or I have so much expertise; I want to show all of it.

This is the reason and where a lot experts make positioning weaker.

You don’t have to stop being capable of serving other customers. You are simply deciding: Who should immediately recognise that this offer is particularly relevant to them?

Optional reading: Read Essentialism by Greg McKeown if you find yourself unable to choose because you want to include everything.

This is optional. Do not interrupt the execution flow unless you actually encounter this resistance.

Your Step 4 Output

By the end of this step, you should end up with a POSITIONING BLUEPRINT containing:

Best-Fit Customer
↓
Competitive Context
↓
Unique Attributes
↓
Customer Value Themes
↓
Customers Who Care Most
↓
Market Frame of Reference
↓

A Chosen Position 

↓

Positioning Statement

↓

Known For Statement (once you are done implementing step 4)

Decide what you want to be known for and find your place in your customer’s mind.

You can be good at what you do and still be difficult to choose. If your customer can’t quickly understand who you’re for, what you help them achieve, and what you want to be known for, your offer can get lost in the crowd.

 

🔓 Use the EVUNN Execution Toolkit: Positioning Canvas

Turn your customer and market research into a clear market position.

The EVUNN Positioning Canvas helps you define the place you want to own in the market, the customer you want to serve, the problem you want to be known for solving, and the space you want your business to occupy.

Before you build your marketing message, be clear on your offer position so you don’t end up trying to be everything to everyone and have an offer for no one.

 

Get the Positioning Canvas + every other Stage 1 Toolkit for 12 months, plus access to the EVUNN Doers Community.

₦5,500 today.

Follow the roadmap. Use the tools. Do the work.

 

. 🔓 GET YOUR 1-YEAR EXECUTION PASS

 

What Should I Do Next?

You started Phase 3 with: I have an offer.

You now know:

WHO: Best-Fit Customer

WHEN: Buying Situation

HOW THEY CHOOSE: Alternatives & Decision Landscape

WHAT YOU SHOULD BE KNOWN FOR: Position

That is a major shift because you are no longer simply describing your expertise. You have chosen how your offer should be understood by the market.

But there is still one question your customer will ask: Why should I choose you instead of the alternatives?

That is different from positioning and that is the job of the next step.

 

Next? Step 5: Define Your Differentiation

Why should my best-fit customer choose my offer over the alternatives?

 

GO TO STEP 5
customer buying decision
Categoriescustomer buying decisionBy Evunn

Customer Buying Decisions: Understand Why Customers Choose | EVUNN

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THE PROBLEM: I know who my best-fit customer is and what makes them ready to act, but I don't know how they evaluate their options or why they choose one solution over another

To have a marketing message that resonates with your best fit customer, you must know the alternatives they have to your offer

Step 3: Understand the Customer's Alternatives

Your Stage 1 access includes all the EVUNN Toolkits you’ll need to do the work. Don’t just read. Use them as you move through each step.

 Your customer doesn’t simply wake up and decide:I’m going to buy this particular offer.

They usually have options. They may decide to:

  • Do nothing

  • Continue with their current approach

  • Try to solve it themselves

  • Ask someone they trust

  • Use an internal resource

  • Buy a book

  • Take a course

  • Use a tool or software

  • Hire a freelancer

  • Hire a consultant

  • Choose another provider

But simply listing these alternatives isn’t enough. You need to understand:

  • Why does the customer consider each option?
  • What matters when they compare them?
  • Who influences the decision?
  • What makes one option feel safer, easier, more valuable or more appropriate than another?

This is what will eventually allow you to position your offer against the alternatives that actually matter.

 

 

The EVUNN Mindset Shift

Now you go from Who are my competitors? → How does my customer make the choice?

Most experts often look at competition from the supplier’s perspective. They search for businesses that offer something similar.

They compare:

  • Services

  • Prices

  • Websites

  • Features

  • Credentials

  • Marketing messages

But your customer may be making a completely different comparison. They may be thinking: should I pay someone or do this myself?, Should I solve this now or later?,  Should I use this consultant or ask someone I already trust?”, Is this worth the money? Can I actually trust this person to deliver?

The customer’s decision criteria matter more than your competitor spreadsheet. So don’t ask only: Who else does what I do?

Ask:

What choices does my customer see, and what determines which choice they make?

 

Recommended Book for this Step Buyer Persona

buyer persona

 

Author: Adele Revella

Time Investment: 7+ hours (Audiobook) 

Listen to Audiobook with Libro |Buy the Book at the Bookshop

 

The Big Idea from Buyer Persona

Understanding buyers requires discovering the insights behind their actual buying decisions, not inventing a profile based on assumptions about who they are.

This book moves beyond basic demographics and asks you to understand the buying insights that influence real decisions.

For this step, we are especially interested in:

  • What alternatives did the buyer consider?
  • What did they expect from each option?
  • What influenced their decision?
  • What made one option more valuable than another?

This gives you much stronger information for positioning than simply researching competitors.

When you are just starting out and have zero customers, you cannot interview your own buyers. However, Revella’s framework can still be implemented by shifting your target to the people who bought from your competitors or evaluated similar solutions in the last 6 months.

Steps on how this is to be done is in EVUNN Action steps for this step (premium)

 

What Business Problem Does Buyer Persona Solve?

It solves: I know who my customer is, but I don’t know what actually drives their buying decision.

A typical persona might tell you: Age: 35–45, job: Consultant, Income: ₦X, Location: Lagos

That information may be useful, but it doesn’t tell you:

  • Why did they choose this solution?
  • What alternatives did they consider?
  • What made them reject those alternatives?
  • What did they value most?
  • Who influenced their decision?
  • What made them trust one option over another?

Those are the insights you need and you can only get them by soeaking to people who have ttried to solve that problem in the past 6 months.

 

Should I Read Buyer Persona Now?

Yes. Read it specifically to understand buying decisions and buyer insights.

You don’t need to turn this into a full buyer-persona research project. Your objective is narrower:

Understand how your customer evaluates alternatives when deciding how to solve the problem.

 

Which Parts of Buyer Persona Matter Most for this Step? Focus on. These:

 

Chapter 1: Understand Buying Decisions and the People Who Make Them

(ESSENTIAL)

This establishes the difference between simply knowing who a buyer is and understanding how they make decisions.

Pay particular attention to: Buying Insights and why demographic and psychographic information alone isn’t enough.

 

Chapter 2: Focus on the Insights That Guide Marketing Decisions (ESSENTIAL)

Focus on The 5 Rings of Buying Insight

This is very useful because it helps you uncover the information behind the customer’s decision rather than simply describing the customer.

 

Chapter 3: Decide How You Will Discover Buyer Persona Insights (IMPORTANT)

Focus on how interviews and other research methods can uncover genuine buying insights.

The goal is to learn from actual buyers rather than inventing assumptions.

 

Chapter 4: Gain Permission and Schedule Buyer Interviews (SELECTIVE READING)

Pay particular attention to: which Buyer Should You Interview? and especially: Interview Buyers Who Chose You as Well as Those Who Did Not

Someone who chose another solution can reveal what your offer was competing against in the real world.

 

Chapter 5: Conduct Probing Buyer Interviews (SELECTIVE READING)

Focus particularly on:

  • Take Me Back to the Day…

  • Questions that keep the conversation flowing

  • Who influences the decision

  • The perceived value of differentiators

  • What actually affected the decision

You are looking for decision evidence, not compliments.

 

Chapter 6: Mine Your Interviews for Buying Insights (IMPORTANT)

Learn how to turn raw conversations into actual buying insights. This prevents the toolkit from becoming a collection of interesting customer quotes.

 

Chapter 7: Determine How Many Buyer Personas You Need (SELECTIVE)

Focus on: Segment Buyers Based on Insights, Not Profiles

This is useful if your research reveals that different groups make the buying decision differently. Don’t create multiple personas simply because customers have different demographics.

 

Chapter 8: Decide What to Say to Buyers (SELECTIVE)

For this step, focus particularly on:

  • Evaluate Your Competitive Ranking

  • Assess Relative Value to Buyers

These concepts become important bridges into Step 4: Define Your Position.

 

What Should I Skip For Now?

For now, skip or skim the sections dealing primarily with:

  • Marketing activities

  • Sales enablement

  • Sales playbooks

  • Long-term organizational implementation

  • Strategic planning

Those become more relevant later. Your immediate objective is: Understand the customer’s decision.

 

 

Your EVUNN Action:

Build Your Customer Alternative & Decision Map

To do that take the: Best-Fit Customer Profile (from Step 1) and the: Buying Situation Profile (from Step 2)

1. Find Lookalike Buyers 

Now investigate what happens after the customer decides they want to make a change. Your job now is to find and talk to 8-10 people who have tried to solve that problem or something close to it in the past ( they don’t need to be your buyers if you are hust starting)

Find Lookalike Buyers to Interview.  Example those who:

  • Evaluated your competitors (and either bought from them or decided not to buy). Look at G2, Capterra, or Trustpilot reviews for your competitors. Look for complaints about pricing, service or mentions of company size.
  • Solved the problem manually or bought an adjacent tool recently.
  • Fit your target market criteria (industry, job title, company size).

Step 2: Conduct the Unscripted Interview

Revella’s golden rule is do not use a rigid script. Instead, use her signature opening question: 
“Take me back to the day when you first decided to look for a solution to [this problem/this type of tool], and tell me what happened.”
Your only job is to let them tell their life story regarding that purchase, probing deeper whenever they mention a frustration, constraint, or breakthrough moment. 
 

 

EVUNN Action Steps, Doers Community & Execution Toolkits are for paid users.

Get the rest of the Action Steps for this step, plus all Stage 1 Action Steps and EVUNN Execution Toolkits – with 12 months of access.

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EVUNN Mindset Checkpoint

Are you trying to prove that your offer is better? Or Are you avoiding the conversations because you’re afraid of what you might hear?

This is a common trap at this stage.

You may discover that your customer prefers another solution, or even prefers doing nothing.

Don’t rush to defend your offer or convince them that yours is better.

Instead, ask: Why does this alternative work for you?

Listen for what they value, what they dislike about the alternatives, what makes them choose one option over another, and what would make them change their mind.

The goal isn’t to win the conversation. It’s to understand how your customer actually makes decisions.

Optional reading: The Mom Test by Rob Fitzpatrick.

If you find yourself leading customer interviews, looking for confirmation, or trying to get people to say they like your idea, this is the book to read.

Optional. Don’t read it unless this resistance is actually present.

 

 

Your Step 3 Output

By the end of this step, you should have a Customer Alternative & Decision Landscape that has:

Alternatives Considered
↓
Why Customers Consider Them
↓
Decision Criteria
↓
Primary Decision Drivers
↓
Decision Influencers
↓
Reasons Alternatives Are Rejected
↓
Potential Reason to Choose Your Offer

↓

And now: Primary Competitive Alternative

 

 

Look at the other options your customer has.

Your customer may be choosing between you and nothing orr they may be considering another provider, doing it themselves, using a different solution, or simply doing nothing.

 

 

🔓 Use the EVUNN Execution Toolkit – Customer Alternative & Decision Map

Don’t guess what customers compare when deciding whether to buy.

Use the EVUNN Customer Alternative & Decision Map to identify the alternatives they consider, why those alternatives are attractive, what criteria influence the decision, who affects the choice and why customers ultimately choose one option over another.

Do this before you position your offer because, you may focus on what makes you different while missing what actually makes your customer choose.

 

 

Get the Customer Decision Map toolkit + every other Stage 1 Toolkit for 12 months, plus access to the EVUNN Doers Community.

₦5,500 today.

Follow the roadmap. Use the tools. Do the work.

 

. 🔓 GET YOUR 1-YEAR EXECUTION PASS

 

If you have been implementing the steps, by now you should know your WHO (Your best-fit customer), WHEN (Their buying situation), You now understand: HOW THEY CHOOSE. You know what alternatives they consider and what influences their decision.

That gives you the information needed for the next strategic move.

You are no longer asking how can I make my offer look different?

You can now ask the much more important question: What position should my offer occupy in this customer’s mind, given what I now know about their needs, situation and alternatives?”

Next? Step 4: Define Your Position

What should my offer be known for by the customer who is most likely to buy it?

 

GO TO STEP 4
Customer Buying Journey
Categoriescustomer buying journeyBy Evunn

Customer Buying Journey: Identify What Triggers Customers to Buy | EVUNN

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THE PROBLEM: I know who my best-fit customer is, but I don't understand what makes them decide it's time to solve their problem.

Find out what triggers your best fit custoner to buy so you will be in the best position to reach them

Step 2: Define the Customer's Buying Situation

Your Stage 1 access includes all the EVUNN Toolkits you’ll need to do the work. Don’t just read. Use them as you move through each step.

 A person can have a problem for months or even years without buying anything to solve it.

Something has to change before they make a move. They may experience a new responsibility, a failed attempt, an unexpected consequence, a deadline, a growing frustration or a new opportunity.

At some point, their current situation becomes difficult enough that they begin looking for a different way forward.

That moment is important because your customer doesn’t simply buy because a problem exists.

They buy when they become motivated to make progress.

So your job in this step is to understand:

What is happening in the customer’s world that creates a reason to seek a solution?

 

 

The EVUNN Mindset Shift

You move from My customer has a problem → My customer is trying to make progress.

It is easy to look at your customer through the lens of your expertise. You see: they need training or they need a better system.

But your customer doesn’t experience their world as a service category.

  • They experience a situation.
  • They are trying to accomplish something.
  • They are struggling with something.
  • They are trying different ways of dealing with it.

And eventually, they may decide: I need to do something differently.

That is the perspective you need to understand.

 


Recommended Book for Step 2: Demand-Side Sales

Demand side sales

 

Author: Bob Moesta & Greg Engle

Time Investment: 5+ hours (Audiobook) 

Listen to Audiobook with Audible free trial |Buy the Book at the Bookshop

 

The Big Idea from Demand Side Sales

Customers do not want to be sold a product; they want to make progress in their lives and buy solutions on their own terms.
Instead of pushing features from the supply side (focusing on what your business wants to sell), you must look through the customer’s eyes and act as a coach or mentor who helps them overcome struggles.
 

Customers are trying to make progress from their current situation to a better one.

Demand-side thinking asks you to understand the customer’s world from their perspective, rather than beginning with what you want to sell.

Instead of asking: what service do I provide? Ask:

What progress is this customer trying to make, and what is happening that makes change important now?

This is so valuable for an expertise-based business because your expertise can easily make you focus on your solution before understanding the customer’s motivation to change.

 

 

What Business Problem Does The Demand Side Sales Solve?

It solves: I know my customer has a problem, but I don’t understand why they decide to do something about it.

This book helps you understand the difference between: a problem existing and demand for a solution emerging.

Someone can know they have a problem and still do nothing. Your objective is to understand what happens between: I have this problem and I need to find a solution.

 

Should I Read It Now?

Yes, this is the primary book for Step 2. You are reading it to develop the ability to see the customer’s situation from the demand side.

As you read, keep asking:

What makes this customer move from tolerating their current situation to actively seeking change?

 

 

Which Chapters of Demand Side Sales Matter Most to me for this step? Focus on these:

 

Chapter 1: Two Perspectives on the World: Supply and Demand (ESSENTIAL)

This establishes the fundamental shift between the supplier’s perspective and the customer’s perspective.

Pay particular attention to how demand looks different when you stop asking: What am I selling? and start asking: what is the customer trying to accomplish?

 

Chapter 3: Solving the Customer’s Struggle (ESSENTIAL)

Focus on understanding:

  • The customer’s current situation

  • What they are struggling with

  • Why their current approach isn’t sufficient

  • What they are trying to change

Your goal is to understand the struggle behind the purchase.

 

Chapter 4: Seeing the World Through the Customer’s Eyes. (ESSENTIAL)

This chapter reinforces the perspective you need throughout the EVUNN roadmap: Don’t interpret the customer’s problem entirely through your own expertise.

Try to understand what the situation looks and feels like from the customer’s side.

 

Chapter 7: Moving from Pushing Products to Creating Pull for Progress (ESSENTIAL)

This helps connect customer motivation to demand. The important lesson for you hereb is: don’t push your solution onto a customer who isn’t ready for change. Understand the progress they are already trying to make.

 

Read these chapters Selectively

 

Chapter 2: The Frameworks for Demand-Side Selling

Read this for the author’s broader framework. You don’t need to master the entire sales methodology at this stage.

Take what helps you understand customer demand and move on.

 

Chapter 5: Mapping Demand-Side Buying to Supply-Side Sales, Marketing, and Customer Success (Read selectively)

It provides useful context for how customer demand connects with the business’s response.

However, the marketing and sales applications become more relevant later in the EVUNN roadmap.

 

What Should I Skip For Now?

 

Chapter 6: Connecting the Dots Between Sales, Marketing, and Customer Support (Skip for now)

It is more concerned with connecting demand-side thinking across organizational functions.

That isn’t the immediate problem you’re solving.

You can return to it later.

 

 

EVUNN Mindset Checkpoint

Are you trying to convince instead of understand?

At this stage, you may feel tempted to prove that your offer is needed.

Watch for thoughts such as: I already know what they need, I just need to explain my solution better. Your job at this stage is not to convince. It is to understand.

Read The Mom Test by Rob Fitzpatrick if you notice that you are:

  • Leading customers toward answers you want

  • Asking hypothetical questions

  • Looking for validation instead of truth

  • Treating compliments as evidence

  • Avoiding difficult customer conversations

This checkpoint reading is optional. Do not interrupt your execution flow unless you actually encounter this resistance.

Your Step 2 Output

By the end of this step, you should have a buying situation profile that contains:

The buyer’s Current Situation
↓
Trigger / Change
↓
Customer Struggle
↓
Desired Progress
↓
Existing Attempts
↓
Reason to Change
↓

And Buying Situation

This becomes the input for Step 3. 

It’s time to look beyond who your customer is.

Knowing your ideal customer isn’t enough. You also need to understand what is happening in their life or business when they start looking for a solution.

 

 

🔓 EVUNN Execution Toolkit: Buyer Situation Mapper

Don’t guess why customers become ready to buy.

Use the EVUNN Buyer Situation Mapper to map the customer’s current situation, trigger, struggle, desired progress, existing attempts and reason for change so you can identify when and why demand for your solution emerges.

If you don’t identify what triggers the purchase and start marketing, you may talk about your offer when your customer isn’t ready to listen and end with no sales. You also need to know this trigger so you mention it in your marketing to make them act.

 

Get the Buyer Situation Mapper + every other Stage 1 Toolkit for 12 months, plus access to the EVUNN Doers Community.

₦5,500 today.

Follow the roadmap. Use the tools. Do the work.

 

. 🔓 GET YOUR 1-YEAR EXECUTION PASS

 

What Should I Do Next?

You started Phase 3 knowing: Who your best-fit customer is. You now understand: what causes that customer to become motivated to seek a solution.

That gives you two critical pieces of the market picture:

WHO: Your Best-Fit Customer

WHEN :Their Buying Situation

But there is still another question. When they decide: I need to solve this, they have choices:

  • They can do nothing.
  • They can do it themselves.
  • They can use an existing solution.
  • They can hire someone else.
  • They can choose your offer.

So the next question is: What would my customer choose instead of my offer?

 

Next? Step 3: Identify the Alternatives

What is my customer comparing my offer against?

GO TO STEP 3
ideal customer profile
Categoriesideal customer profileBy Evunn

How to Define Your Ideal Customer Profile | EVUNN

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Not sure which step is right for your business?

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THE PROBLEM: I have an offer that can solve a real problem, but I don't know exactly who I should build and market it for.

You must understand exactly one group of people your offer is built for in great detail to lead in your market

Step 1: Define Your Best-Fit Customer

Your Stage 1 access includes all the EVUNN Toolkits you’ll need to do the work. Don’t just read. Use them  to implement as you move through each step.

You have already validated the problem and built an offer around it. The truth is your offer may be useful to several different groups.

You may be thinking: my offer is for professionals or my offer is for small business owners. These descriptions are too broad to guide your positioning or make you stand out in your market.

Your job now is to identify the customer who has the strongest combination of need, motivation, value, buying ability and fit with your offer.

You are not trying to decide who you can help. You are deciding:

“Who is most likely to need, value and buy this particular offer?”

 

 

The EVUNN Mindset Shift

You are moving from Who could use my offer? → Who is most likely to buy it?

Most professional resist narrowing their audience. They think, but I can help many different people.

That’s true but the fact is you aren’t permanently excluding everyone else. You’re deciding who gets your primary attention for this offer.

A clear customer makes it easier to:

  • Position your offer

  • Explain its value

  • Create relevant messaging

  • Identify alternatives

  • Choose marketing channels

  • Recognize good prospects

  • Build a repeatable acquisition system

Clarity creates relevance.

 

 

Recommended Book for step 1: Buyer Persona

buyer persona

 

Author: Adele Revella

Time Investment: 7+ hours (Audiobook) 

Listen to Audiobook with Libro |Buy the Book at the Bookshop

 

The Big Idea from Buyer Persona

Don’t invent a customer profile. Understand the buying decisions real customers make and the insights that drive those decisions.

Traditional customer personas often focus on demographics, interests and personality. Revella’s approach focuses much more on understanding how buyers actually make decisions.

This means you’re not creating a fictional customer avatar. You’re trying to understand:

Who is most likely to buy this offer, what drives their decision, and what makes them choose one solution over another?

 

 

What Business Problem Does Buyer Persona Solve?

This book helps solve: I know who could benefit from my offer, but I don’t know which customer group is most likely to actually buy it.

This is important because the person who experiences the problem isn’t automatically the person who will buy the solution.

You need to understand:

  • Who experiences the problem most strongly

  • Who wants the outcome most

  • Who has a reason to act

  • Who can realistically buy

  • What they value in a solution

  • What influences their decision

 

 

Should I Read this Book Now?

YES, but don’t read this book simply to learn how to create a traditional customer avatar.

Read it to learn how to identify buying insights that help you determine your best-fit customer.

As you read, keep asking: What does this teach me about identifying the people most likely to buy my offer?

 

 

Which Chapters of Buyers Persona Matter Most to me at this stage? Read these First:

 

Chapter 1: Understand Buying Decisions and the People Who Make Them (Essential)

Learn why traditional demographics and psychographics aren’t enough to understand buyers.

Focus on the difference between describing a customer and understanding their buying decision.

Chapter 2: Focus on the Insights That Guide Marketing Decisions (High priority)

Pay particular attention to the 5 Rings of Buying Insight.

These give you a stronger way to think about the information that actually matters when identifying a buyer.

Chapter 3: Decide How You Will Discover Buyer Persona Insights (Essential)

Learn how interviews and other research methods can uncover useful buying evidence.

 

Read these Chapters  Selectively

 

Chapter 5: Conduct Probing Buyer Interviews

Use this if you need additional customer conversations.

 

Chapter 6: Mine Your Interviews for Buying Insights

Use this if you have interviews that need to be analysed.

 

Chapter 7: Determine How Many Buyer Personas You Need

Use this when you need to determine whether your offer should focus on one customer group or several.

 

What Should I Skip For Now?

Skip Chapter 4 for now

Unless you need help recruiting people for buyer interviews.

Skip most of Chapters 8–11 for now

These chapters move into:

  • What to say to buyers

  • Marketing activities

  • Buyer’s journey

  • Sales and marketing alignment

  • Strategic implementation

Those concepts become more useful later. Your current question is simply: Who is the best-fit customer for this offer?

We are docusing on that for now. Don’t let later marketing questions distract you from answering it.

Listen to Audiobook with Libro |Buy the Book at the Bookshop

 

 

Recommended Supporting Book for this Step: This Is Marketing

 

This is marketing seth Godin

Author: Seth Godin

Listen to Audiobook with Libro |Buy the Book at the Bookshop

The Big Idea from This is Marketing

Don’t try to serve everyone. Identify a specific group of people you can serve exceptionally well, understand what they want, and build your offer and message around them.

This book complements Buyer Persona by helping you move from understanding your potential customers to deliberately choosing the audience you want to focus on.

Why This is Marketing is on this List

Buyer Persona helps you understand the people who experience the problem.

This Is Marketing helps you answer the next strategic question:

“Of all the people I could serve, who should I deliberately choose to serve first?”

This is where you begin to narrow your market and identify your smallest viable market.

 

 

What Chapters of This is Marketing Should you Focus on now? Focus on these:

Chapter Four: The Smallest Viable Market (ESSENTIAL)

This is the most important chapter for this Step.

Learn why starting with a specific, focused group can be more powerful than trying to appeal to everyone.

Ask: Who is the smallest group of people I could serve exceptionally well with this offer?

 

Chapter Eight: More of the Who –  Seeking the Smallest Viable Market (ESSENTIAL)

Go deeper into identifying the people you are choosing to serve.

Use this chapter to refine the audience you identified through your Buyer Persona work.

Ask: Who specifically is most likely to value the transformation my offer provides?

 

Chapter Nine: People Like Us Do Things Like This (READ)

Use this chapter to understand the importance of shared identity, beliefs and behaviour within a market.

Ask: What does my chosen audience believe, value or identify with?

This can help you move beyond demographic descriptions and understand the worldview of the people you want to serve.

 

Chapter Fourteen: Treat Different People Differently (READ)

This reinforces the importance of not treating an entire market as though everyone has identical needs, motivations or expectations.

Use it to think about whether your current audience definition is still too broad.

 

Chapter Fifteen:  Reaching the Right People (SKIM)

This will become more useful later when you work on customer acquisition and distribution.

For this Step , focus only on the principle of reaching the right audience rather than trying to reach everyone.

What You Can Skip For Now

For now, you can skip or save these sections for later:

  • Chapters 1–3

  • Chapters 5–7

  • Chapters 10–13

  • Chapters 16–23

They contain valuable marketing ideas, but they are not necessary for completing the Best-Fit Customer and Smallest Viable Audience work in Step 1.

You can return to them when you reach the marketing and customer-acquisition stages.

 

Your EVUNN Takeaway

After reading the relevant chapters and implementing this stel with the toolkit, you should be able to confidently answer: Who specifically am I choosing to build this offer for?

Not: Who could possibly use it? But who is most likely to need it, value it and act on it?

Your goal is to move from Potential Market→ Best-Fit Customer→ Smallest Viable Audience→ Focused Market

This gives you a deliberate audience to easily sell to.

 

EVUNN MINDSET CHECKPOINT

Are you resisting narrowing your audience or niching down?

You may be thinking: but I can help many different people. If this is preventing you from making a decision, you may want to read or listen to Essentialism by Greg McKeown

Focus on the parts that help you understand the value of choosing what matters most and eliminating unnecessary options.

This is optional.

If you are comfortable narrowing your audience, skip this checkpoint and continue.

 

Your Step 1 Output

By the end of this step, you should have: BEST-FIT CUSTOMER & BUYING INSIGHT PROFILE

Cont:

Best-fit customer
↓
Situation
↓
Problem
↓
Desired outcome
↓
Buying motivation
↓
Buying considerations
↓
Solution fit
↓
Supporting evidence

This becomes your customer anchor for the rest of Phase 3.

You’ll use it when you:

  • Define the customer’s buying situation

  • Identify alternatives

  • Position the offer

  • Develop differentiation

  • Create your core message

  • Build marketing hooks

  • Choose where to reach them

Don’t try to sell to everyone. The more groups of people you try to reach, the harder it becomes to create an offer, message, and marketing that actually connects to one ideal group.

 

🔓 Use the EVUNN Execution Toolkit: Ideal Customer Profile Builder

Don’t guess who your offer is for.

Use the EVUNN Ideal Customer Profile Builder to compare potential customer groups, capture your existing buying insights, identify your strongest customer fit from all yiur possible customer groups and create your Best-Fit Customer & Buying Insight Profile.

The Profile Builder helps you define the specific people you’re best positioned to serve.

Take this step before you start marketing or, you may end up spending time and money trying to reach people who were never the right customers for your offer.

 

Get the Ideal Customer Profile Builder + every other Stage 1 Toolkit for 12 months, plus access to the EVUNN Doers Community.

₦5,500 today.

Follow the roadmap. Use the tools. Do the work.

 

. 🔓 GET YOUR 1-YEAR EXECUTION PASS

 

What Should I Do Next?

You now know who your best-fit customer is., but knowing who they are doesn’t tell you when they become ready to buy.

A person can experience the same problem for years without taking action.

Before they start looking for solution, something usually changes first:

  • A new responsibility.
  • A deadline.
  • A growing consequence.
  • A major opportunity.
  • A change in circumstances.

Something makes them think: I need to solve this now. That moment is the buying situation.

 

Next? Step 2: Define The Customer’s Buying Situation

What you are looking for: What happens that makes my best-fit customer decide it’s time to solve this problem?

GO TO STEP 2
Offer validation
Categorieshow to validate an offerBy Evunn

How to Validate an Offer: Test If Customers Will Buy | EVUNN

Make Your EVUNN Journey Personal

Not sure which step is right for your business?

This roadmap is part of the EVUNN business-building journey. Tell us what you’re building and where you are right now, and we’ll point you to the roadmap that’s right for your situation – free.

PERSONALIZE MY JOURNEY →

Free |Takes 1 minute



THE PROBLEM: I've built an offer, but I don't know whether real customers actually want it and will pay for it.

Until real people pay or show a stong willingness to pay for your offer through commitment, you don't have a business

Step 10: Validate Your Offer

Your Stage 1 access includes all the EVUNN Toolkits you’ll need to do the work. Don’t just read. Use them as you move through each step.

 

By now you must have  built the pieces of your offer as follows:

  • A validated problem

  • A promising solution

  • Problem–Solution Fit

  • A defined customer outcome

  • A transformation roadmap

  • A designed offer

  • A packaged offer

  • A value proposition

  • A strengthened offer

  • A pricing strategy

But all of this is still a hypothesis until real customers respond to it.

You may believe customers will want this or they will see the value and pay this price. You must know that belief isn’t validation.

Validation is about getting evidence.

Your job now is to put the offer in front of real people and learn what actually happens.

 

 

The EVUNN Mindset Shift

Now, you go from I Think They Will Buy → Let Me Find Out

Most experts at this stage often become emotionally attached to an offer they’ve spent time creating. That’s dangerous.

You don’t need to prove that your offer is good. You need to discover whether the market responds to it.

So don’t ask: how do I convince people to buy my offer?

Instead ask: What evidence would tell me whether this offer is worth pursuing further? This changes the exercise from selling your idea to learning from the market.

 

Recommended Book for this Step: Testing Business Ideas

Problen validation

 

Author: David J. Bland & Alexander Osterwalder

Listen to Audiobook with Audible free trial |Buy the Book at Bookshop

 

Just like earlier steps, you don’t need to read this book from beginning to end.

Your objective is to learn how to turn your offer assumptions into testable hypotheses and choose appropriate experiments.

 

Sections of Testing Business Ideas to focus on

 

Section 2: Test

Hypothesize (Essential)

Learn how to turn assumptions into explicit hypotheses.

For example:

Weak assumption: People will like my consulting offer.

Better: Independent consultants with fewer than 10 active clients will pay ₦X for a structured client acquisition programme because inconsistent lead generation is preventing them from reaching their revenue goals.

Now you have something you can actually test.

Experiment (Essential)

Learn how to design experiments that generate evidence.

The question becomes:

“What is the smallest, fastest and most credible way I can test this assumption?”

 

Learn (Essential)

Testing isn’t useful unless you know what the evidence means. You need to distinguish between what happened and what you learnt from what happened.

Decide (Essential)

The result of validation should not always be:

YES, launch it.

It could be: proceed or modify or retest or abandon or return to an earlier assumption

Good validation gives you permission to change direction.

 

Section 3: Experiments

You don’t need to study every experiment in the book under this section. Focus on the experiments that make sense for an expertise-based business.

Especially look at discovery experiments (useful when you still need to understand customer reactions) and validation experiments (useful when you want stronger evidence that customers will actually engage, commit or pay).

The exact experiment should depend on what assumption you are testing.

 

Listen to Audiobook with Audible free trial |Buy the Book at Bookshop

 

Your Step 10 Outcome

By the end of this step, you should have an Offer Validation Report containing:

Final Offer
↓
Critical Assumptions
↓
Riskiest Assumption
↓
Testable Hypothesis
↓
Success Criteria
↓
Experiment Selected
↓
Customer Evidence
↓
What We Learnt
↓
Decision
↓
Offer Changes
↓

And then a Validated Offer Direction

This becomes the final output of Phase 2.

Your entire Phase 2 Outcome moved from: I think I have a good offer to I have an offer built around a validated problem, a defined customer and a desired outcome, and I have tested the key assumptions behind the offer with real-world evidence.

It’s time to put your offer in front of real people.

Right now, you may think your offer is valuable. Your customer has to agree.

So, before you spend time promoting it, find out whether the people you want to serve actually want it, understand it, and are willing to pay for it.

 

 

🔓Use the  EVUNN Execution Toolkit – Offer Validation Toolkit

Don’t guess whether your offer will work.

Use the EVUNN Offer Validation Toolkit to turn the assumptions behind your offer into testable hypotheses, select the right experiments, capture customer evidence, evaluate what you learnt and decide whether to proceed, modify, retest or abandon.

 

Get this toolkit + every other Stage 1 Toolkit for 12 months, plus access to the EVUNN Doers Community.

₦5,500 today.

Follow the roadmap. Use the tools. Do the work.

 

. 🔓 GET YOUR 1-YEAR EXECUTION PASS

 

You Have Completed Phase 2

You started this phase with: I have a validated problem. What should I create to solve it? And you finish with a validated offer direction.

You now have:

  • A promising solution
  • Problem–Solution Fit
  • A defined customer outcome
  • A transformation journey
  •  A structured offer
  • A clear value proposition
  • A strengthened offer
  • A pricing strategy
  • Real-world validation evidence that there is need for your product.

To sell this product, you need something important which is your positioning. You have not yet built a market position.

You now know what you’re offering and why it matters. The next question is: Who exactly should this offer be positioned for, and why should they choose it over the alternatives?

 

Next? Phase 3: Position & Get Attention

That’s where you move from building the offer to positioning it in the market and creating a system for getting the right people to notice it.

 

GO TO phase 3
how to price a service
Categorieshow to price a serviceBy Evunn

How to Price Your Service: Build a Pricing Strategy | EVUNN

Make Your EVUNN Journey Personal

Not sure which step is right for your business?

This roadmap is part of the EVUNN business-building journey. Tell us what you’re building and where you are right now, and we’ll point you to the roadmap that’s right for your situation – free.

PERSONALIZE MY JOURNEY →

Free |Takes 1 minute



THE PROBLEM: I have an offer people may value, but I don't know what to charge for it.

Your pricing can break your business. Before you launch the offer, work out a pricing strategy

Step 9: Develop Your Pricing Strategy

Your Stage 1 access includes all the EVUNN Toolkits you’ll need to do the work. Don’t just read. Use them as you move through each step.

 

By now if you have been following the map, you should have:

  • Designed the solution

  • Established problem–solution fit

  • Defined the customer outcome

  • Mapped the transformation

  • Designed the offer

  • Packaged the offer

  • Defined the value proposition

  • Strengthened the offer

Now, its time take one major decision: What should I charge for the offer?

Many experts get stuck here. They look at competitors or they calculate how many hours the work will take wnd multiply their hourly rate by the number of hours.

Or they simply choose a price that feels comfortable.

But pricing is not just about what you need to earn. It is a decision about the relationship between: Customer → Problem → Outcome → Value → Offer → Price

Your goal is not to find a magical correct price. Your goal is to develop a pricing strategy that makes commercial sense and can be tested in the market.

 

 

The EVUNN Mindset Shift

You go From What Can I Charge? → What Makes This Price Make Sense?

An expert may think: I have 15 years of experience, so I should charge ₦X. But customers don’t necessarily value your experience simply because you have it.

They value what that experience helps them achieve.

So instead of asking: how much should I charge for my time, ask:

What is the economic and practical value of solving this problem for this customer?

Your expertise influences your ability to create value. It does not automatically determine the price.

 

Recommended Book for Step 9: $100M Offers

how to price a service

 

Author: Alex Hormozi

Time Investment: 5+ hours (Audiobook) 

Listen to Audiobook with Audible free trial |Buy the Book at Amazon

 

Remember, you have already used this book for offer creation and enhancement. For pricing, we will return specifically to its pricing section.

 

Chapters of 100m Offers to Focus on For this Step

Chapter 3 – Pricing: The Commodity Problem (Essential)

Understand why customers can treat an offer like a commodity when its value isn’t clearly differentiated.

 

Chapter 4 – Pricing: Finding The Right Market – A Starving Crowd (Essential)

Pricing doesn’t exist independently of the market. A strong offer presented to the wrong market can still struggle.

Use this chapter to think about:

  • Demand

  • Problem importance

  • Customer ability to pay

  • Market attractiveness

 

Chapter 5 – Pricing: Charge What It’s Worth (Essential)

This is the core reading for this step. Focus on the relationship between: Price ↔ Value ↔ Outcome

Don’t interpret this as: Charge as much as possible.

The EVUNN lesson is:

Price should be grounded in the value and economics of the problem you’re solving, while remaining credible for the customer and market.

Listen to Audiobook with Audible free trial |Buy the Book at Amazon

 

Your Step 9 Deliverable

By the end of this step, you should have a Pricing Strategy Blueprint that contains the following:

Customer & Desired Outcome
↓
Problem Cost / Economic Significance
↓
Customer Ability To Pay
↓
Alternative Solutions
↓
Delivery Economics
↓
Pricing Model
↓
Price Floor
↓
Target Price
↓
Price Ceiling
↓
Offer Scope At That Price
↓

And then the Initial Pricing Hypothesis once you are through with this step. This is the pricing decision you will validate in Step 10.

 

By Now your Offer Blueprint should have if you have started implementing the steps:

Validated Problem
↓
Most Promising Solution
↓
Problem–Solution Fit
↓
Customer Outcome
↓
Transformation Roadmap
↓
Designed Offer
↓
Packaged Offer
↓
Value Proposition
↓
Strengthened Offer
↓

Pricing Strategy

Your price affects more than revenue. It influences how customers perceive your value, your profitability, and the sustainability of your business.

 

 

🔓 Use the EVUNN Execution Toolkit – Pricing Strategy Toolkit

The EVUNN Pricing Strategy Toolkit helps you evaluate your offer, customer value and profit goals so you can arrive at a price you can confidently stand behind.

Work on yiur price before you start selling or you may ebd up leaving money on the table, or price yourself out of the market.

 

Get this toolkit + every other Stage 1 Toolkit for 12 months, plus access to the EVUNN Doers Community.

₦5,500 today.

Follow the roadmap. Use the tools. Do the work.

 

. 🔓 GET YOUR 1-YEAR EXECUTION PASS

 

What Should I Do Next?

You have now designed, packaged, strengthened and priced the offer but you’ve also made several assumptions along the way.

You assume: The customer wants the offer. You assume: The customer sees the value. You also assume: The customer will accept the price.

Those assumptions now need evidence to prove you have a business.

 

Next? Step 10:  Validate The Offer

The question we will now try to answer is: will real customers actually want this offer and pay for it?

This is where your offer moves from designed to tested.

GO TO STEP 10
how to increase offer value
Categorieshow to increase offer valueBy Evunn

How to Increase Offer Value: Make Your Offer More Compelling | EVUNN

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THE PROBLEM: My offer solves a real problem, but customers may still hesitate because they don't see enough value or feel confident enough to buy.

To make your target audience see your offer as a no brainer offer, it must be compelling

Step 8: Increase Offer Value & Customer Confidence

We are almost done with creating an irresistable offer. Lets have a complete view of what we have been working on as relates the offer:

  • Phase 2 Step 5: What is the offer?

  • Phase 2 Step 6: How is it packaged?

  • Pahse 2 Step 7: Why is it valuable to this customer?

  • Phase 2 Step 8: How do we make the offer more compelling and increase confidence in buying it?

  • Phase 2 Step 9: What should we charge?

  • Phase 2 Step 10: Will people actually buy it?

 

So, if you  have been implementing the roadmaps, you should now have a complete offer and also know:

  • Who it’s for

  • The problem it solves

  • The solution

  • The desired outcome

  • The transformation

  • What the customer receives

  • How it is packaged

  • Why it is valuable

But a valuable offer can still be difficult to buy. A customer may think:

  • “This sounds useful, but will it actually work for me?”
  • “Is it worth the money?”
  • “What if I don’t get the result?”
  • “Why should I choose this instead of another option?”

Step 8 is about improving the offer itself so that the customer sees greater value and has greater confidence in achieving the desired outcome.

 

 

The EVUNN Mindset Shift

Thisb Takes you From Add More Stuff → Increase The Value And Reduce The Risk

 

When most experts hear that an offer needs more value, they often respond by adding:

  • More sessions

  • More PDFs

  • More videos

  • More bonuses

  • More support

  • More features

But more isn’t necessarily more valuable. The goal isn’t to make your offer bigger. The goal is to make the customer’s desired outcome more valuable, more believable, faster to achieve,  easier to achieve, less risky.

This is where $100M Offers becomes especially useful.

 

Recommended Book for Step 8: $100M Offers

how to price a service

 

Author: Alex Hormozi

Time Investment: 5+ hours (Audiobook) 

Listen to Audiobook with Audible free trial |Buy the Book at Amazon

 

100m Offers is Step 8’s, primary book. You’ve already used Chapters 6, 8, 9 and 10 when designing the offer. Now focus on the offer-enhancement section.

Chapters of 100m Offers to Focus on 

 

Chapter 11: Enhancing the Offer: Scarcity, Urgency, Bonuses, Guarantees, and Naming (Essential)

This gives you the overall framework for strengthening an offer. But don’t just apply every tactic in the book.

Use only what genuinely improves the customer experience or reduces uncertainty.

 

Chapter 12: Enhancing The Offer: Scarcity (Recommended)

Learn when genuine scarcity can help a customer make a decision. Do not manufacture fake scarcity.

 

Chapter 13: Enhancing The Offer: Urgency (Recommended)

Understand legitimate reasons why a customer may need to act now rather than later.

 

Chapter 14: Enhancing The Offer: Bonuses (Recommended)

Learn how additional components can increase value. But ask:

Does this bonus help the customer achieve the outcome?

If not, leave it out.

 

Chapter 15: Enhancing The Offer: Guarantees (Essential)

This is particularly useful for thinking about risk reduction. The question isn’t: What guarantee can I copy?

It’s: What legitimate risk is preventing this customer from feeling confident enough to buy?

Then determine whether there is an appropriate way to reduce that risk.

 

Chapter 16: Enhancing The Offer: Naming (Skim)

A clear name can make an offer easier to understand and remember. But naming is not the main objective of Step 8.

 

 

Your Step 8 Deliverable

By the end of this step, you should have an Offer Value & Confidence Blueprint that contains the following:

Customer Buying Concerns
↓
Value Gaps
↓
Desired Outcome Strengthened
↓
Success Mechanisms
↓
Early Value / Quick Win
↓
Effort Reduction
↓
Value-Enhancing Components
↓
Risk-Reduction Mechanisms
↓
Relevant Bonuses / Support
↓
Ethical Scarcity/Urgency  where Appropriate
↓

Then a Strengthened Offer once you complete step 8

Once you are donebwith this step, you you wil have two versions of your offer in your thinking: the Original Offer  and  the Strengthened Offer and you can clearly see what changed and why.

 

Now your progress so far now flows like this:

Validated Problem
↓
Most Promising Solution
↓
Problem–Solution Fit
↓
Customer Outcome
↓
Transformation Roadmap
↓
Designed Offer
↓
Packaged Offer
↓
Value Proposition
↓

And then a Strengthened Offer that feels irresitable once you are done with step 8.

Having a valuable offer isn’t enough. Your customer also needs to feel confident that it can deliver the result they want.

🔓 Use the EVUNN Execution Toolkit – Offer Value & Confidence Builder

Your offer is already designed. 

Now Use the EVUNN Offer Value & Confidence Builder to identify the biggest sources of customer hesitation and strengthen the offer through better value, clearer progress, reduced effort, appropriate support and legitimate risk reduction.

The Offer Value & Confidence Builder helps you remove the doubts that could stop someone from buying and gives them  enough reason for people to say yes.

 

🔓 Unlock the Offer Value Builder & complete step 8

 

One Payment of ₦5,500 or $4.25 . All Stage 1 Toolkits. Yours For Life.  Plus access to  EVUNN Doers Community
No monthly subscription. No recurring fees. Just the tools you need to execute

 

What Should I Do Next?

You now have a designed, packaged and strengthened offer.

One major decision remains which is the price for the offer.

Pricing shouldn’t be pulled out of thin air or based solely on what competitors charge. You need to determine a price that makes sense for:

  • The value of the outcome

  • The customer’s willingness and ability to pay

  • The nature of the problem

  • Your delivery model

  • Your economics

  • The position of the offer

 

Next? Step 9: Develop The Pricing Strategy

The question we’re now trying to answer is “What should I charge for this offer, and why?”

L

GO TO STEP 9
value proposition
Categoriesvalue propositionBy Evunn

Value Proposition: How to Show Customers Why Your Offer Is Valuable | EVUNN

Make Your EVUNN Journey Personal

Not sure which step is right for your business?

This roadmap is part of the EVUNN business-building journey. Tell us what you’re building and where you are right now, and we’ll point you to the roadmap that’s right for your situation – free.

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THE PROBLEM: I have an offer, but I can't clearly explain why this particular customer should see it as valuable.

To make your target customers want what you are offering, you must make them see how valuable ithe offer is for them

Step 7: Define The Value Proposition

 

If you have been following and implementing the roadmaps to this point, you must now have:

  • A validated problem

  • A promising solution

  • Problem–Solution Fit

  • A defined customer outcome

  • A transformation roadmap

  • A designed offer

  • A packaged offer

But there’s still a gap. You now know what you’re offering. However, your customer needs to understand why it matters to them in order to buy it.

That’s the job of your value proposition. A value proposition connects customer need to your offer, then to the custimer’s desired outcome and what makes your offer valuable to them.

It answers Why should this customer care about this particular offer?

 

 

The EVUNN Mindset Shift

You go From Here’s What I Do → Here’s The Value You Get

 

Experts often describe their expertise like I provide business consulting or I offer executive coaching. But your customer isn’t buying your expertise.

They’re buying what your expertise helps them accomplish.

So instead of starting with: What do I want to tell people about my offer?

start with: What does this customer value, and how does my offer create that value?

 

Recommended Book for this Step: Value Proposition Design

value proposition

 

Author: Alexander Osterwalder, Yves Pigneur, Greg Bernarda & Alan Smith

Time Investment: 5+ hours (Audiobook) 

Buy the book at the Bookshop

 

This is the primary book for Step 7.

You don’t need to read the entire book. Your goal is to use its Value Proposition Canvas to connect your customer’s needs with your offer.

 

Sections of the Book to Focus on

Part 1.1 Customer Profile (Essential)

Focus on:

  • Customer Jobs

  • Pains

  • Gains

You have already done much of this work in Phase 1. So do not start from scratch. You are to bring forward the strongest evidence from your phase 1 steos from:

  • Problem Opportunity Finder

  • Buyer Motivation Mapper

  • Jobs-to-be-Done Canvas

  • Customer Discovery Interview Kit

  • Problem Validation Toolkit

Your job now is to select and prioritize, not rediscover.

Part 1.2 Value Map: (Essential)

Focus on:

  • Products & Services

  • Pain Relievers

  • Gain Creators

This connects the offer you created in Steps 5–6 with the customer’s actual needs.

Part 1.3 Fit: (Essential)

This is the most important section for this step. Ask: Does our offer actually create meaningful value for this customer?

 

Part 2.3 Understanding Customers   (Recommended)

Use this only where your existing customer evidence isn’t strong enough. Don’t turn Step 7 back into customer discovery.

 

Part 2.4 Making Choices  (Recommended)

This helps you decide which pains and gains deserve priority. Your value proposition should not try to solve everything.

At this point, the work you’ve done so far from phase 1 till now should flow together like this:

Validated Problem
↓
Most Promising Solution
↓
Problem–Solution Fit
↓
Customer Outcome
↓
Transformation Roadmap
↓
Designed Offer
↓
Packaged Offer
↓

And now once steo 7 is completed, you Customer Value Proposition (your offer is almost ready for the market)

Your custoner value proposition is the point where you clearly explain:

Who you’re helping → what matters to them → what you’re offering → what value it creates.

Time to make your offer value clear.  Your customer should quickly understand what you can help them achieve and why your solution is worth choosing.

 

 

🔓Use the  EVUNN Execution Toolkit – Customer Value Proposition Canvas

Don’t leave this step with scattered notes.

Use the EVUNN Customer Value Proposition Canvas to bring your customer and offer work together in one place. The Customer Value Proposition canvas will help you put your offer into words, in a way that speaks to what your customer actually cares about.

This toilkit will help you map: Customer Jobs → Pains → Gains

against:

Your Offer → Pain Relievers → Gain Creators

and finish with your Core Customer Value Proposition.

Don’t start marketing without implementing this step otherwise, you may have a valuable offer that your customer simply doesn’t see the value in.

 

🔓 Unlock Value Proposition Canvas and Complete Step 7

 

One Payment of ₦5,500 or $4.25 . All Stage 1 Toolkits. Yours For Life.  Plus access to  EVUNN Doers Community
No monthly subscription. No recurring fees. Just the tools you need to execute

 

 What Should I Do Next?

If you have implemented this step, you should now know why your offer is valuable.

However knowing the value isn’t the same as making the offer as compelling and low-risk as possible for your customer to have no reason not to buy.

The next question we need to take care of is: how can I strengthen the value of this offer and increase the customer’s confidence in buying it?

 

Next? Step 8: Increase Offer Value & Customer Confidence

That’s where we’ll work on value enhancement, proof, risk reduction, bonuses, guarantees, delivery confidence and other mechanisms that can make the offer easier to say yes to.

 

GO TO STEP 8
offer packaging
Categoriesoffer packagingBy Evunn

Offer Packaging: How to Package Your Product or Service for Customers | EVUNN

Make Your EVUNN Journey Personal

Not sure which step is right for your business?

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THE PROBLEM: I have a clear offer, but I don't know how to package it into something customers can easily understand, buy and experience.

If you want to start a business your target audience can't resist, understand offer packaging

Step 6: Package The Offer

 

Step 5 answers What is the offer? Step 6 answers: How should I package and structure that offer so the customer knows exactly what they are buying and can experience the transformation?

 

This step is very important because a lot of experts like coaches, consultants, trainers, freelancers and professionals, have good service but have packaged it around their own time rather than the customer’s desired result.

In Step 5, you designed your offer. You still have an important decisions to make. For example, should you sell 10 hours of consulting? or a 6-weeks business transformation programme?

Should your offer include weeekly calls + templates + implementation support Or a  done-for-you service?

These aren’t merely delivery decisions. The way you package your expertise changes how the customer understands, evaluates and experiences the offer.

 

 

The EVUNN Mindset Shift

This Takes you From How Much Of My Time Am I Selling? → What is the Best Way To Deliver the Transformation?

A lot of experts package their expertise around what is easiest for themselves. For example, I charge ₦X per hour. or  I offer four coaching sessions. or I provide consulting on a monthly retainer.

But the customer isn’t buying your hours. They’re buying progress toward an outcome. So instead of asking how should I package my services, ask what structure will make it easiest for this customer to experience the transformation I’ve designed?

That questiion might lead to:

  • A productized service

  • A fixed-scope consulting engagement

  • A coaching programme

  • A group programme

  • A workshop

  • A digital product

  • A toolkit

  • A done-for-you service

  • A hybrid offer

  • A retainer

The right format depends on the customer, problem and transformation.

 

Recommended Book for Step 6: $100M Offers

how to price a service

 

Author: Alex Hormozi

Time Investment: 5+ hours (Audiobook) 

Listen to Audiobook with Audible free trial |Buy the book at  Amazon

 

You already used this book in Step 5 to design the core offer. For Step 6, don’t reread the entire book.

Use the sections that help you think about how the components of the offer are assembled and presented.

 

Recommended Chapters for Step 6:

Chapter 9: Creating Your Grand Slam Offer Part I: Problems & Solutions

Review how problems and solutions can be translated into offer components.

Chapter 10: Creating Your Grand Slam Offer Part II: Trim & Stack

Use this chapter to decide:

  • What belongs in the package

  • What should be removed

  • What should be combined

  • What should be presented as the core offer

  • What genuinely improves the customer’s experience

Chapter 11: Enhancing The Offer

Skim this chapter as preparation for Step 8, but don’t make scarcity, urgency, bonuses or guarantees the focus of Step 6.

 

Chapters you don’t need yet

Don’t make pricing the focus here.

That’s Step 9. And don’t make offer validation the focus. That’s Step 10.

Listen to Audiobook with Audible free trial |Buy the book at  Amazon

 

Your Step 6 Outcome

By the end of this step, you should have a Customer-Ready Offer Package that contains core offer, offer components, delivery model, customer Journey, customer responsibilities, duration, scope, support & reesources.

By now if you followed from the begining (phase one), you should now have:

Validated Problem
↓
Most Promising Solution
↓
Problem–Solution Fit
↓
Customer Outcome
↓
Transformation Roadmap
↓
Designed Offer
↓

and after concluding step 6, you have a Packaged Offer.

It’s time to put your offer together. Package gour offer so people get it

You may have a great solution, but if people can’t quickly understand what they’re getting and why it matters, they won’t buy it.

 

 

🔓 Use the EVUNN Execution Toolkit – Offer Packaging Worksheet

You’ve designed your offer. Now turn it into a clear, structured customer experience.

The EVUNN Offer Packaging Worksheet helps you decide what belongs in the package, how it should be delivered, what the customer receives, what they need to do, and where the boundaries of the offer sit.

Do this before you start selling so you don’t make your customer work too hard to understand what you’re offering and you lose out. People don’t have the patience to figure it out.

 

🔓 Unlock the Offer Packaging Worksheet

 

One Payment of ₦5,500 or $4.25 . All Stage 1 Toolkits. Yours For Life.  Plus access to  EVUNN Doers Community
No monthly subscription. No recurring fees. Just the tools you need to execute

 

What Should I Do Next?

Your offer is now designed and packaged.

But a customer doesn’t automatically see the value simply because you’ve created something useful.

The next question is we need to answer is why should this particular customer believe this offer is valuable to them? That takes us to the next step.

 

Step 7: Define The Value Proposition

This is where you connect the customer, problem, solution and desired outcome into a clear statement of value.

GO TO STEP 7