What do you do? Before you read on, please answer that question in your mind.
Obviously I can’t guess your answer, but I can guess some characteristics of your answer. You likely gave a title. You probably described the function you perform. You may even have described some specific tasks or responsibilities. Yet, you probably didn’t describe the impact you have and on whom.
When someone says, “tell me about your product,” you probably do the exact same thing. You talk about the product, the features, the capabilities. You are proud of it, and you likely have good reason.
Go look at your web page. What does it talk about? Most websites I look at talk about the company and their products.
This is completely ingrained in us. Yet it is so wrong. (Yes, I fall into this trap way too often, so I’m not immune either.)
Buyers don’t care about your products. They only care about their problems and the results they hope to achieve when you help them solve those problems.
I remember being a salesperson very early in my career. I would essentially list product features while looking into a buyer’s eyes hoping to see a glint of interest. Ugh. What I should have done was talk to them about their own problems and what they were hoping to achieve.
Some day a psychologist will help me understand why this happens, but for now, let’s just recognize what happens. We all focus on ourselves and our products. We don’t spend enough time focusing on our buyers, customers and their problems. Maybe we don’t have a structure for how to focus on customers. (I’ll give you a structure in a later blog.) Maybe we are too self centered. Maybe, maybe, maybe.
What I do know is we are so much more successful winning more deals at higher prices when we focus on our buyers, their problems, their expected results. Yes, it’s hard. But start today. Spend more time thinking about your customers than yourself. OK, at least spend some time thinking about your customers.
Let me know how it goes.
