Tag: sales

Everywhere

FabrizioLeave a comment

The voice of your customers – what they feel, what they want, what they say, how they speak about their problems, your product and your competitors, what they think – is everywhere.

It’s in the messages they send to your sales and support.

It’s in the reviews they leave online.

It’s in the forums and discussion boards.

It’s in the noise at trade fairs and conferences.

It’s in the interviews transcript for the next case study.

It’s in the blog and social media posts they write.

It’s in the way they use the material you provide them.

It’s in the results to the survey you are running on your website.

It’s in the questions they ask the first time they meet you.

It’s in their choices after you’ve sent them the final proposal.

Of course, to make all of this relevant, you have to first shut up. Then listen. And finally act on what you have learned.

Working on the voice of customer is an expression of servant leadership. That’s probably the reason why so few succeed with it.

The experience

FabrizioLeave a comment

If there’s one thing that everybody in marketing agrees on is that to effectively market a product or service you should not talk about that product or service.

And if you look around, you know that very few practice what they preach.

This video from Apple is something to aspire to.

There’s loads of products, actually there’s virtually no frame that does not feature an Apple device or solution (I stopped counting at 25 shots).

But it is not about the products.

It’s about the transformation that the product can produce in the world. It’s a story about taking a piece of paper and translating that idea into something concrete and worth presenting. It’s about the excitement, the fear, the tiredness, the anxiety, the juggling, the mistakes, the rebirths, the preparedness and the unpreparedness, the unsecurity, the will to make things happen.

Apple would be entitled, more than many others, to spend hours talking about their technology, their features, their apps, their ecosystem. But they understand that’s useless.

What matters is the experience. That’s what this ad is.

Replacing the fences

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You are given a straightforward task: replacing the fences that surround the garden of four houses (A, B, C and D).

Some people would have a plan, a modus operandi, something they have refined with years of experience. And let’s say that their plan is to replace the fences of house A, then the fences of house B, then the fences of house C, and finally the fences of house D. The problem they are solving is replacing the fences.

Some people would go around the houses first, and take note of the fences that are in worst conditions. They would make some sort of list, and they would then perhaps start by replacing the fences in house B, then the fences in house D, then the fences in house C, and eventually the fences in house A. The problem they are solving is making sure that the fences do not fall, and perhaps even cause some damage to the gardens or to the people who live there.

Some people would go around the houses, take note of the fences that are at risk of falling off, provide a temporary fix to safeguard gardens and people (for example, to house B and house D), and then go about replacing the fences with the plan they have put to test in their multiple years in the field (A, then B, then C, then D). The problem they are solving is making sure the fences do not fall and cause harm, while at the same time being efficient in completing the task.

The problem you are out to solve is rarely as simple as you believe.

And by the way, which one of the above is your company?

Product vs Marketing

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Is product more important than marketing, or is it the other way around? Should a start-up invest early in building an audience, or should all the resources go into crafting something that people will love? Will the product manager lead future development, or will it be the marketing manager?

These questions are a distraction, they put departments and professionals one against the other. And at the end of the day, it does not matter.

A better one would be: “who has the capacity to distance themselves enough from what we do to understand the needs of our audience?”. An even better one could be: “who can tell us where to go with no regard for where we’ve been?”.

A degree of neutrality is necessary, and sometimes it will come from product, sometimes it will come from marketing.

It’s the people, not the roles, that will make a difference.

Three books

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Three amazing books about how people make up their minds that can enhance your marketing skills.

Thinking, fast and slow – by Daniel Kahneman.

The righteous mind – by Jonathan Haidt.

Influence – by Robert Cialdini.

If you read any one of these, you’ll have a much better understanding of why talking about features and how brilliant your product is will not help you boost your sales.