How to Validate Your Offer Before You Sell It

In this episode, I’m walking you through four essential questions I use to validate an offer before bringing it to market. If you’ve ever launched something that didn’t convert the way you hoped—or you’re in the process of refining an idea - this episode will help you pressure-test your offer before you invest more time, energy, or money.   I break down how to make sure your ideal customer actually recognizes the problem your offer solves, why using their language (not yours) is critical for conversion, and how to tell if this is a problem they’ve already tried—and failed—to fix on their own. These insights help you move beyond assumptions and into real market alignment.   I also talk about the importance of desire and delivery—making sure your audience truly wants the outcome you’re offering and that the format of your offer supports fast, meaningful transformation. Whether you’re a course creator, membership owner, or coach, these questions will help you create offers that feel clear, compelling, and easy to say yes to.   3 Key Takeaways:   Problem awareness drives sales If your audience doesn’t clearly recognize the problem, they won’t buy—no matter how good your solution is.   Language creates connection Using the exact words your audience uses builds trust and makes your offer instantly feel relevant and understood.   Desire + delivery matter An offer must solve a problem people want solved and be delivered in a way that feels simple, focused, and transformation-driven.   LINKS TO RESOURCES MENTIONED IN TODAY’S EPISODE Connect with Teresa on Website, (Grow, Launch, Sell), Sign up to Teresa's email list,  Instagram, LinkedIn, or Facebook, Subscribe to my Youtube   Transcript If you've been watching these videos for a while, you'll know that I will often talk about a failed launch. Doesn't mean that you have a terrible product or you need to change the offer. However, in today's video I want to talk to you about how do you know that you actually have an offer that will sell, and I'm gonna give you four questions that you can ask yourself to validate your offer and be confident that it's the right one for you and your audience. If we've not met, my name is Theresa Heath Waring and I help course creators, membership owners, and coaches grow their online business. And honestly, I geek out on this stuff. I love it. I joke that I watch launches like other people watch Netflix series. And this is what I eat, sleep, and breathe. So it brings me so much joy to bring the podcast and the YouTube videos and give you real strategic, tactical advice on how you can grow your online business. Before we get started with today's [00:01:00] episode, I'm gonna ask a big favor. Is there any chance. That you could go and hit the subscribe button if you're watching this on YouTube or hit the follow button. If you are listening to this podcast, wherever you are listening, I would be so appreciative. Creating content is one of the things that I love the most, and being able to come every single week and bring you free content that helps you grow your business is something I adore, and I would just love it if you could just help me back just a little bit by hitting that subscribe button. Let's get started with the episode. I have four questions that I'm gonna walk you through that I want you to consider either when looking at your current offer or when you are considering your next offer. Question number one, what specific problem does your offer solve? And, and this is the key bit. Does your perfect customer know that they have the problem? Now, you might think that that's a bit of a strange question. 'cause surely if you're creating an offer, it's because your customers have got a problem and you are helping them [00:02:00] fix that problem. However, I have seen time and time again, people create something that they want to create and put together an offer of things that they think, yes, this is what my customers need. The truth is it might be what your customers need, however, your customers might not know that they need it, and to try and sell something to someone that doesn't even know that they need it, you are starting with an uphill battle straight away. So, for instance, one of the examples I give on this is I had a client in the past that helped women who were in peri and menopause stages. And when we look at this question, this is such an interesting one, because a woman of whatever age might not know that she is potentially going into perimenopause. So if she doesn't know that she's going into perimenopause, how does she know that she might be there and that this lovely client has [00:03:00] a problem that will help her fix it? So the key thing here is. Do they know they have the problem? Now, one of the ways in which you can look at this is when you are an expert in your field, you tend to know the words and the shortcuts and the, you know, the quick answer to the thing. So for instance, my lovely coach that I know who helps women in Perry and menopause stages, she might know by someone telling her her symptoms that yes, you're definitely in perimenopause. But they might not know that. So for instance, when she talks about her offer, if she was just talking about, I help women in perimenopause, you are going to have a whole audience who would think, well, that's not me. I'm not in there. But what they do know is the problems that they have. So instead, I'm using this as a very literal example, but instead of her necessarily talking about. Perimenopause. She might talk about the symptoms that someone has, which they can go, oh yeah, I have those symptoms. Oh, yes, [00:04:00] I have those problems. So. Are we trying to help our customers solve a problem that they don't know they've got, or give them the solution to something that they're not? They didn't know that that is the solution that they needed. So let me remind you of that first question. What specific problem does your offer solve and does your customer know they've got it? Question number two, have I heard my audience talk about this in their words? Not mine. Again, this is kind of attached to question number one, but this is super, super important because we as experts like to fill in the gaps. Okay? So someone will say to me that they are having a problem selling their offer, and I might be able to see really quickly that it's their launch mechanism Now. I've just used the term launch mechanism, which they might be like, I dunno what the hell you're talking about. And if I talk about offering a service that talks about helping your launch mechanism. You might not know [00:05:00] what on earth I'm talking about. So what have I heard my customers actually said in their words, not mine. One of the things that I encourage you to do is to actually have conversations with people, whether it's on Zoom, whether it's a video call, whether it's just you picking up the phone, whether it's in person. Listen to what they have to say, what are their problems? And one of the things that I have to be really careful of, so I try and record whenever I do this, is I will really easily put my own words in instead of using their words. And the truth is, if we want an offer to be attractive to your perfect customer, then we need to make sure we are using their words. So if your customer or someone you think, right, this offer I have in mind will be. So perfect for them. If they aren't able to articulate in their own words what they need help with, then you are going to have a real disconnect between explaining the author and explaining why it can help them. Again, this might seem particularly obvious, but if they're [00:06:00] not saying they have the problem. Then they're definitely not searching for a solution for that problem. Question number three, is this something they've already tried to fix and they've struggled fixing? A lot of these questions might feel like I am stating the obvious, but I promise you I have looked at so many offers and offers of people who are so passionate about the thing that they want to present to the world and they want to offer. And I've looked at it and thought, I don't think this is going to sell. Not because they're not brilliant and not because what they're trying to do isn't brilliant, but because they've created something that actually isn't something that their customers are asking for. So although these questions seem obvious, they're really important to ask yourself. So, as I've already said, question number...