Quality is a strategy.
3 frameworks for solopreneurs who are tired of marketing something average.
I used to be a creator who screamed about the importance of marketing at the top of my lungs. It was the time I got the most paid subscribers, by the way.
When you give marketing advice, it’s easy for readers to see instant results. And humans live for instant gratification. That’s why we like sex, sugar and makeup. That’s why we live on social media.
You are terrified of being invisible, I get it.
But you know what’s another way of being invisible? Marketing a beige, average, meh offer that you know could be a lot better. You know that you can be a lot better. And then probably you wouldn’t need so many marketing hacks.
I think a lot of you are tired of being ‘hustlers’ and want to be ‘craftsmen’.
But if you put in the effort to make the offer better, will it really make a difference?
The right questions to ask.
Let me repeat that question because many of you have this running in the background.
“If I put in the effort to make the offer better, will it really make a difference?”
Will you really get more attention and close more sales if you’re better and your competitors are louder?
That’s the thing everybody focuses on. What will be the obvious external result of me being a better fill-in-the-blank and when will I see it?
For solopreneurs, that is the wrong question to ask.
Here are the right questions:
How much longer will I be able to sell an average product? It’s the age of AI. The average is collapsing and quality becomes an urgent survival mechanism.
When will the burnout of chasing marketing hacks (that are always changing) kill what I’m trying to build? The marketing gurus won’t tell you about Deming’s Pride of Workmanship concept because it doesn’t fit their message. It focuses on removing barriers that deprive people of taking joy and pride in their work, and I’d argue extensive focus on marketing has become such a barrier.
If you ask these questions, it becomes obvious you need to stop everything you’re doing and focus on improving quality.
But what is quality?
The definition of quality.
A lot of serious people have done serious research to define quality—from Aristotle on excellence, to Robert M. Pirsig on the philosophy of Quality, to Joseph M. Juran and W. Edwards Deming on modern quality management.
After 11 years as a solopreneur, I will spare you the academic reading and give you what I find is the most useful concept of quality for solopreneurs.
It’s also the model we will use below to help you massively improve the quality of your offer through business model based analysis that differs based on whether you offer services, products or content.
Taguchi’s definition of quality.
Genichi Taguchi was a world-renowned Japanese engineer and statistician, regarded as the“Father of Quality Engineering”.
He said that quality is the minimum “loss imparted by the product to society from the time the product is shipped”.
Here’s what this means.
Right now, you’re treating quality as a footballer: as long as the ball goes inside the goalposts, you get the point. A goal is a goal.
The problem is that a product that barely passes the mark is usually much worse than one that is perfect for the client’s needs. In fact, the market is flooded with products that barely pass inspection, and the creators of such products are precisely the ones that put a lot of effort into marketing.
Because how else do you get attention for something that barely passes the mark?
Taguchi said quality isn't about just being "in or out." It’s about hitting the absolute center of the bullseye or as close to it as you possibly can. Every millimeter you miss the bullseye by costs someone money, time and/or comfort.
Quality = Smaller Misses
Traditional quality asks, “Is it good enough to sell?” Taguchi asks, “How close did we get to perfect?”
Perfect is what markets itself, or at least requires a lot less marketing. Perfect is what people share and talk about. Perfect is what goes over the chasm that exists between the early adopters and the early majority.
So how can you get closer to perfect in your solo business, based on whether you’re in a service, digital products or content business?
Here are the practical steps.