Developing a Solutions Focus to Add Customer Value

I’m a fan of “solutions” and “solution selling.” True, these terms have been widely used and diluted from their original meanings. In fact, I don’t mean what was meant by the pioneers of the concept, which was grounded in the technology industry. Their approach is very structured and focuses on alleviating buyers’ pains. There is subsequent literature challenging the idea that people always buy because they have pain; I frankly don’t think it matters.

The point is that when we adopt a solutions focus, we are required to listen and respond to cues from the buyer. This can be a structured process, with a hierarchy of questions to ask, but it needn’t be. However, to do it well you need to know the following:

1. What outcome does this product or service produce?

2. What benefit will the buyer receive?

3. How might it support the buyer’s needs, wishes, aspirations, pain points?

4. Why is this so?

Here’s a tool I created to help a client’s team develop a solutions focus.

Moving vertically, if we couldn’t satisfactorily fill in each box with a credible answer, we asked ourselves if we a) were convinced of the value of the product/service; or b) needed to regroup and refine either the product/service or its value prop—or both.

A note: the OUTCOME and BENEFITS should not be the same. The OUTCOME is what you get. The BENEFITS are the advantages you derive from the OUTCOME.

If you want to use this tool I suggest you do separate versions for every type of buyer you wish to service (i.e., target market). For example, if you think that a technology manager will be your first contact but that the ultimate decision-maker will be the chief technology officer, you need different worksheets to articulate their different needs.

To be more granular, a technology manager may need a simple software tool that you want to sell; however, the chief technology officer will need to take into consideration whether the company’s infrastructure will support the product, what the licensing structure is, what implications that has for other parts of the organization, and so forth. For the manager, the outcome is a job better done; for the CTO it might be the potential for greater productivity, at lesser cost, across five business units.

The better prepared you are to articulate these outcomes, and their benefits, the more effective you will be as a marketer or salesperson.

To be continued: Getting the Value Proposition Right.

Creating Urgency in Marketing

Given the deluge of Black Friday and Cyber Monday offerings we’ve all been subjected to over the past week (and their bewildering extensions), it’s time to talk about creating urgency.

Everyone wants customers to make quick decisions. That’s why this is such a controversial topic! I attended a conference recently during which an audience participant asked the question that’s always the elephant in the room: “When you say that supplies are limited, are you telling the truth? And, is it okay to not tell the truth?”

My simple answer: NEVER don’t tell the truth.

However, there are ways to create urgency without (dare I say) misconstruing. These are the ones I can think of.

1. Get your timing down. There’s a reason that health clubs have big promotions in January. People have made resolutions; they ate too much over the holidays; they’re housebound and bored. Health club owners know this and prey on us poor hapless souls who need them. (On the other hand, since it’s all very predictable, many of us wait until the offers are good enough. But you can tackle this, too, with creative offers that get a jump on the competition. Or by forecasting your cash flow around the phenomenon.)

2. Appeal to aspirations. Do you know how your customers want to be perceived? Using language and images that reflect that image are useful in creating urgency (and differentiation). The diamond and cosmetics industries are masterful at doing this. One caveat: be careful not to go so far out on a limb as to be intimidating.

3. Appeal to guilt. This is a bit of an adjunct to timing and aspirations: people procrastinate, and they feel bad about it. You can save them from their guilt at not improving themselves, not completing projects … whatever … and be a hero.

4. Create a sense of exclusion. Special offers, especially time-limited special offers (see below), appeal to individuals’ sense of entitlement and desire for prestige.

5. Be ready for foreseeable, but unpredictable, opportunity. This one I particularly love: people in service industries (consultants especially) are known to develop intellectual capital around topics likely to make headlines—and stockpile them. They are, then, ready to strike when the iron is hot (i.e., they can publish or submit for publication immediately)—and they appear to be the experts, far outdistancing their competitors. You can create a market in this way, especially if the topic requires quick action from those affected.

6. Time-limit your offer. Obvious. But be careful not to misconstrue.

7. Price aggressively. Also obvious. But it has to be mentioned!

Reflections on a Visit to The Boston Globe

This morning I toured The Boston Globe's facilities in Dorchester (a section of Boston, for those unfamiliar with our geography). This is a "Globe Insider" benefit, extended to individuals with Globe subscriptions (more here: http://www.bostonglobe.com/insiders).

We began by viewing the plant, where the paper is printed, and then we sat in on an editors' meeting, where the content for tomorrow's paper was reviewed and discussed. Finally, we had a Q&A session with an editor, who talked with us about the Globe's coverage of our recent election and answered other questions we had about the paper.

This would have been fascinating for me at any point in time, but it felt especially important and relevant to my life as the newly minted writer/publisher of this modest little blog. During the meeting, and after, I thought about what a privilege and responsibility it is to be interpreting and writing about ideas for others to read and consider. I am far from able to do what Globe reporters and editors do every day, but I realize now that I aspire to what they aspire to: interesting content, fairness, accuracy, and the ability to engage.

The other thing I thought about is the remarkable land we live in, where our press is free to write as they please, and we can visit and challenge and learn from their experience and ideas. This is not to be taken for granted, and in fact I had thought about using Thanksgiving as the theme for this post, with that being the message.

But for one more thing: I would also like you to know how much I appreciate your reading this blog. I look at the stats on a daily basis and think about what you might like to read next, based on what you are viewing. I do and will always continue to value your feedback.

Have a wonderful holiday!

Social Media and the Sphere of Influence

I had a great conversation the other day with an organization looking at its channel strategy (meaning: ways to take a product or service to market through various types of arrangements, including relationships with partners). One of the participants in the meeting hit the nail on the head, describing perfectly one of my favorite axioms about marketing. He said, “We’re looking here at getting other people to sell for us!”

Marketing and selling products and services involves many different kinds of strategies. One important one, and its importance is growing by leaps and bounds, is influence. Word of mouth and referrals are commonly known and understood types of influence. Work with “influencers,” like industry analysts, members of the media (e.g., editors and reporters), consultants and other subject matter experts who might write about you, or talk about your work with others, or make referrals to you, often turns out to be a tremendous source of demand generation. It’s a simple equation: people value expertise, and they value the recommendations of people who have expertise.

In relatively recent history, social media has elevated the concept of influence—and changed the ground rules of expertise.

I wrote in The Social Media Challenge: Managing Expectations that social media should be regarded as a tool. Social media is, at its heart and done well, a tool with the potential to increase and intensify activities that directly or indirectly influence consumers.

This is done simply when you “Like” something on Facebook and that information is shared with your “Friends,” who may then become intrigued to try it, or inspired to endorse it because they “like” it too. The circle widens.

It is done in more complex ways when you “Follow” people writing commentary in blogs, essays, etc. and on other social media platforms; e.g., Twitter, Pinterest (and please, let us not forget that we still have and read many well-regarded periodicals, newspapers and journals). People “Follow” what interests them and what they respect. Others learn from the “Followers” about new things to follow. Thus, bonds get created. And influence happens.

A very prescient example is the great FiveThirtyEight blog, authored by Nate Silver for The New York Times. Silver’s analysis of the 2012 election polls compelled millions to consult The Times for election coverage. Silver happens to have a new book, for which was interviewed extensively in the media … at the same time that the election was heating up (and after; he was interviewed on The Daily Show the night following the election). Is this cynical? No, it is smart. There is no question that Silver’s new book will do well as a result of his forecasting the election results with stunning accuracy. And there is no question that if he continues to analyze the polls he will continue to be a sought-after subject matter expert, and he will be endorsed in ways that elevate both him and The Times.

I’m writing about him, aren’t I?!

I noted in my prior posting that social media is labor-intensive and that the cost-benefit needs to be clearly analyzed. I also suggested that I would write again about the “sphere of influence” that social media can create. Again, simple: the second part of the equation is the work of getting others to work on your behalf. That’s how social media has elevated the concept of influence.

Now, to expertise.

When absolutely anyone can assert virtually anything, accurate or inaccurate, and have it widely disseminated, as is the case today, the rules change. It used to be that anything could be put out but not necessarily easily found. Now search engines and sophisticated optimization techniques make everything accessible, and this makes it all the more difficult for consumers to parse what is authentic and what is not.

Thus, it is incumbent upon us as marketers and business owners to find and cultivate the authentic. How? You want to know everyone and anyone who can credibly endorse what you have to offer, and you have to make certain that you get and stay on their radar screens. Reward this group as you can, keeping mindful not to be seen as inappropriate. Focus especially on those who have, as we have discussed above, the potential to influence others. From that smaller group, try to find a few individuals with genuine enthusiasm for your product and service, and willingness to take your calls and open your emails.

Then, call and email them. But only when you have something important to share.

And one other thing: ask for their help. If your relationship is authentic, they are likely to give it willingly.

These activities are, again, labor intensive, and the results quixotic. You never know when, or how, exactly your groundwork will pay off. This frustrates many marketers and so they neglect their influence strategy.

Don’t do this. Work on influence and expertise is time well spent.