Do You Know What You Are Selling?
Speaking to a client this morning, they mentioned that a colleague of theirs had been asked by a marketing academic who had once taught them “What are you selling? A concept or a process?”
Neither the client I was talking to nor their colleague was sure of the answer. I was asked my opinion.
“Neither” was my reply.
“Neither? How come?”
I explained that in a truly market oriented business, outcomes are what are being sold, not processes, concepts or anything else that might underpin or facilitate that outcome.
As I mentioned in a recent "Musing", from the customer perspective, Black & Decker, for example, are selling holes because that’s what their customers need. They only want drills because they need holes.
The Point: Concentrate on understanding the “what” before you begin to immerse the customer in the "how”. Only once there is a connection between you and the customer on the “what” will the “how” have any relevance (if, indeed, it ever does).
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