Have you stopped beating your customer?
It's an old leading question from the days of vaudeville.
The title of this article is a leading question, too. It's prompted by a mistake many businesses make over and over again.
A company creates a product it believes will sell, and spends hundreds...thousands...even millions producing and trying to sell it. Only no one buys it, and the company wonders why.
The answer is simple: People buy only products and services they believe they need. You cannot sell a product or service that isn't wanted.
Yet companies persist in beating their potential customers to death with messages. Marketing people apply an arsenal of psychological weapons in an effort to arouse desire for their products. Often such weapons are used to prey upon people's fears.
In the world of moral capitalism that's called manipulation. And strong companies don't use manipulative marketing techniques because they don't have to.
When Businesses Believe They Must Manipulate to Drive SalesIt is a normal human reaction to want others to accept our products and services. We wouldn't start businesses if we didn't believe we could be successful in convincing people to become customers. Yet hundreds of business leaders continue to believe that people will buy a product or service simply because it exists. that by employing clever schemes and psychological ploys, they'll sell products.
And sometimes they're right. Sometimes. Maybe there is a sucker born every minute. If that's your take on humanity, best of luck. You won't be doing yourself, your customers, and the rest of us business people any favors, but if you have that sort of attitude, then you don't care what we think anyway.
Yet...if what you want is a business to live for, you have to give people what they need and want. You must have a customer-validated product or service. You need a customer-validated vision for your business' future.
A Customer-Validated Vision for Your FutureA customer-validated vision is one that ensures a focus on delivering the absolute best product or service you can to people who want to do business with you.
Getting to such a vision isn't easy. It takes a willingness to devote yourself and your team to asking good questions and, more important, listening to the responses you get without filtering them through your needs or expectations.
Consider the New Coke fiasco a number of years ago. The marketing group for Coca-Cola did, in fact, do focus groups on the company's new drink formula. They asked questions, but questions for which they already had answers!
You see, they "knew" the solution to their loss of market share to Pepsi was to create a "New" Coke, one that tasted more like Pepsi. To their chagrin, the New Coke was a disaster. Why? Because their customers didn't want something that tasted like Pepsi. If that's what they wanted, they would have bought Pepsi products!
From Here ForwardAre you ready to attract and retain more customers? Then you need a customer-validated vision for your business.
Get clear about where you are today, and devote yourself to identifying where you want to be for your customers. Ask your team the hard questions, questions such as:
Are you willing to validate your corporate values in light of the needs of the customers you're in business to serve?
Are you willing to do the work required to understand how to focus what you do best on your customers' success? And, if so, what do you need to do to get there?
Are you willing to define your purpose and end goal in customer-validated language?
What will you do to ensure that every stakeholder for your company speaks the same customer-validated language?
It's all about how you serve who you serve. Turn your business mind around and look to your customers if you want success. That's where you'll find the pot of gold at the end of your rainbow.
Michael Knowles, co-author of The Entrepreneur's Concept Assessment Toolbook (available at http://www.booklocker.com/books/1988.html or Amazon.com) works with businesses that are struggling to attract and retain customers. A Principal in One Straight Line LLC, Michael has over 25 years of experience helping companies create communication strategies help them engage customers, employees, investors, outsourcing partners, and the community.
Michael can be reached at mknowles@onestraightline.com.
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