Altus Agency

Marketing Minute:
Are you selling what your customers want to buy?
All too often, I see businesses advertising their wares from their own perspective. They talk about their expertise and what they DO or MAKE, thinking that's what people are buying.
Hence my question - are you selling what your customers want to buy?
Confused? There's a great story that illustrates this perfectly. A college professor stood in front of his classroom, holding a shovel. He told the class that their assignment was to write an ad selling the shovel.
The students got to work developing ads that talked about the virtues of the shovel - the hardwood handle, forged steel blade, the balance between the blade and the handle, etc. The professor let the students go on for a while and then he stopped them shaking his head. He said, "The secret to selling this shovel is to realize that no one buys a shovel just because they want a shovel. They buy a shovel because they need a hole."
No matter what you sell - you need to figure out what's behind that sale. They're not buying your service or your product. They're buying what they get out of that service or product. When you miss that - you run the risk of not meeting that need and losing a customer.
So how do you go from selling shovels to realizing that your customers want to buy a hole?
Ask better questions: Don't just ask the standard intake questions. Develop a short list of questions that will trigger a conversation about the underlying need.
Hire an outsider to talk to your current customers: Sometimes customers won't be very candid when you ask for feedback, but when you hire a firm to do that asking for you (or secret shop you), you'll be amazed at what you learn.
Observe them in the wild: Watching how your customers interact with what you sell can be incredibly enlightening. They might use it in a way you hadn't imagined or for a purpose you hadn't considered. They may have had to create a workaround because of something that isn't quite right.
The real secret to knowing what your customers actually want to buy is to never assume. Don't be fooled into thinking you know. Do the hard work of finding out and earn their loyalty for years to come.