Why your business should be more like a strip club
Tuesday, September 7, 2010 at 6:54PM On a recent trip, a number of friends and I visited the local strip club in town. Sure it sounds really bad, but I promise, it was for research purposes only (alright, mostly). See, one thing that I realized while there was that those seedy, old-style joints teach a very valuable lesson -- how to sell and upsell, a lot.
Think about every product you've signed up for. Every social network and new Web 2.0 tool that's available had a way to sign up for free. Most of those sites didn't even have a way to pay them if you wanted to. Nope, they just wanted to build their user base. As soon as they decided they wanted to start charging, many times they're shocked to find out that people don't want to pay for their services. The problem isn't that people won't pay it's that they don't see enough of a value in paying for the product.
Step 1 - In the world of strippers, they start off up on the stage. They dance provocatively and slowly take each article of clothing off. This begins the hook. On the web, this is what people are thinking when they visit your home page. They might like what they see but that's about as far as it goes.
Step 2 - Next, the dancer may come closer to you and maybe even motions at you to come near her. This gets everyone a bit steamy. At this point, there is no way you're leaving until the dance is over. When it comes to your product, this is the point that you've invited them in. Maybe you offered them a free sign up or let them view a video some special content on your site.
Step 3 - This stage is critical. The wonderful performer knows her role and knows how this game is supposed to work. They'll get right up on your table, maybe even dance in your lap. Once she's made it to this point, she needs to know exactly what you need to be given in order to get you to the point of whipping out your wallet and paying for that private dance. In the world of your product, you need to show them how great you are and why they should pay for the last mile. Maybe they want more content (i.e. Hulu Plus), maybe they want ad-free content (like almost every iPhone demo app) or maybe they are in need of extra features or storage space (Google -> Google Premier). Whatever your customer is looking for, you need to know what it is and when they're willing to pull out their credit card (cash is still reserved for the strip club).
Once the girl has sealed the deal, it's all about getting repeat business. This is where the online world has a huge advantage. While the girl only gets the cash, you can ask for a credit card. A quick charge each pay cycle is way easier than going through the three steps above every time. At $9.95/month, you need to make sure your customer is happy and that they're still seeing value from your product and you should be golden.
business, entrepreneur, money, process, strip club, technology 
Reader Comments (3)
Someone please talk about pivoting until you achieve product-market fit.
Amazing timing. I just grabbed www.DripTease.com as a portal for drip marketing.
If came up during a video Ustream chat with Amy Cosper (Entrepreneur Magazine editor) and @Aronado.
Love it!
Christian,
Haha, well played sir.
Chris,
Wow, that's quite a site idea. I'm sure there are many more things we can learn from the world of sex, adult services, porn and strip clubs.