We tend to spend the bulk of our time responding to people who are looking to buy. They’ve gone through all the tough work of identifying they need to change. They have gone through the work of defining the problem, defining what they want to achieve, getting funding, identifying the risks, looking for solutions….
And then they talk to us. We identify them because they are hitting on our websites, downloading white papers and we reach out to them saying, “We have the best solutions in the world, can we talk…..?” We send them emails and dials, connect with them on LinkedIn and some respond.
Alternatively, they actually reach out, asking to talk. We go through nominal discovery, schedule the demo, then say, “If you buy by month end, we can do a deal…..”
What we fail to realize is that we are only dealing with the smallest part of the market. We are dealing with the few customers that have made it through all the obstacle, mine fields, challenges of figuring out their problem and committing to do something about it. The majority of them never get to engaging us because for various reasons they have given up, or have gotten diverted. They are doing something they don’t know how to do and get overwhelmed.
We seldom reach out to them because we may not know they are looking. If, somehow, we stumble on them, there’s a struggle–they are trying to figure out what their problem is, what they need to learn, who to get involved, and how they define the change project. And all we want to talk about—or are capable of talking about—are our products and solutions. There’s a huge disconnect and unless we recognize it, talking about what they need to learn at the moment, it’s highly unlikely they will get into “buying mode.”
And then there’s the silent majority. The people caught up in doing what they’ve always done, in the ways they’ve always done it. Even though they find it increasingly difficult to achieve their goals; they keep doubling down, working harder, longer, hiring more people to do more of the same things, faster (Hmmmmm, sounds familiar.) A few of them may be starting to think, “I wonder if there is a better way…..”
Or then there are those that may be achieving their goals. They hit their numbers, they are growing. They keep on doing what they’ve always been doing because it seems to be working. But they may not recognize, “We could be doing much better….” Or they may be oblivious to a looming disruption–either a shift in their markets, a new competitor, or something else. They could achieve much more, but they are, for the moment, doing OK.
These segments represent the majority of the market. They represent the vast potential of people who could be buying, or more importantly, should be buying.
That represents massive opportunity to help our customers, to create differentiated value, to incite them to change–ultimately, buying.
Ironically, because we suffer from the same things, we keep doing what we’ve always been doing, perhaps more of it, perhaps finding it more difficult, perhaps oblivious—-we fail to recognize and address that opportunity.
But there’s something fascinating about addressing those segments of the market. First, the massive potential is compelling, just seizing a fraction of it drives huge leaps in our results. But the thing is, if you start talking to them in a language they understand, we incite them to change.
Traditionally, we speak the language of products and solutions. But that’s a foreign language–and an irrelevant language to them. What captures their attention and imagination is the language of possibilities. This language typically starts with, “Have you ever imagined….., What if……., Do you see these things happening…., What would the impact of this be….,” and so forth. Typically, it’s someone with deep expertise–not necessarily on solutions, but of problems and issues.
We catch the attention of people at trade shows, conferences, in social channels, and often, one on one. We capture that attention by instigating them, first, to think differently. And then we help incite them to change.
Then something remarkable happens. They ask us, “How can you help us think about this? How can you help us address this? What should we be doing?” And they are asking us because we are the people that helped them see the opportunity. And they keep asking us as they go through identifying the change, committing to the change, defining the problems, establishing their goals, searching for a solution. When they are in the solution phase, the biggest influence on the solution the select is us. And the probability is that they ultimately buy from us. Afterall, we have been their “go to resource,” have they have looked at the possibilities.
Some of you may be thinking, “This is a lot of hard work and takes a lot of time!” Yes and No, I suspect many think this because they have never done it. But we have so many examples of others doing it successfully.
Think of the conferences where an inspirational speaker has inspired you to think, “There may be a different/better way,” they’ve piqued your curiosity. And they haven’t been talking about a product, rather about an idea. Or the webcast, or the discussion group, or a blog post followed by a meeting.
Think of a large number of startups suggesting, “There is a better/different way….” CRM wasn’t new, but SFDC got us thinking about a different way. All sorts of payment systems have existed for decades, but companies like Stripe helped us re-imagine them. And there are thousands of others. While what we bought was their products, what inspired us to change, then ultimately buy was a different way of thinking about things.
I’ve been privileged, through my career, to be a part of this “re-imagining.” Early on, it ways helping bankers think about credit card processing or foreign exchange differently. Later it was helping airplane manufacturers re imagine the design and manufacturing process–cutting years off that cycle. Later it was helping other organizations think about prescriptive maintenance, or process control, or re-imagining their GTM, marketing and selling strategies.
What I’ve discovered is that it is different work than pushing a product. In some sense it’s easier work because we focus on the customer, talking about what they care about, rather than trying to convince them about a product. By the time they want to talk about a product, we are the people they prefer to do business with. Does it take more time–sometimes, but often it’s roughly the same amount of time.
But what’s more exciting about doing this is that it dramatically expands our potential. Rather than being limited to working with the customers that are already buying, we are instigating customers that could and should be buying–and that opportunity is far larger than the opportunity presented by the former group.
There’s a massive market and opportunity to incite our customers to change. But to do this, we have to first recognize that we must change.
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