Do You Know What You’re Selling?

Surprising Numbers Do Not

Whenever I first meet a client, I ask them what they sell.  The answer is almost always expressed in terms of features, but that’s not why people buy.  Therefore, it’s not what they’re selling.

A feature is only relevant when it satisfies a need or desire.  The fulfillment of the customer’s needs and desires is the essence of the marketing process.  Moreover, people don’t like to be sold, but they love to buy.  All we have to do is figure out what the customer is really buying.  Unfortunately, that’s not always a straightforward process.

One client told me over and over again that his was a “boutique agency,” and I kept asking him, “Why does that matter?  How does that benefit your customer?”  It took a remarkable amount of time to get an answer to my question.  It turned out that “boutique agency” really meant personal attention to every account and frequent information updates that his competition doesn’t provide.  Those are real benefits.  That’s the “WIIFM” - an acronym standing for “What’s in it for me?”

Do not use vague, meaningless terms like “boutique agency” when you mean “personal attention” and “better information.”  State your value in terms that benefit your customer.

Furthermore, the new terms positioned the client in the marketplace.  No other agency does what his does.  This clearly distinguishes his agency, and that distinction has to be made in the mind of the prospect.  The term boutique does nothing to do so, because there are many agencies that specialize or that are small, but neither of those meanings applied to my client.

Bertolt Brecht said the way to market was to either do things differently or do them better, and that makes him the first proponent of positioning strategy in my opinion.  Positioning emphasizes how your product or service is different or better than the other offerings in the market. 

Look at your competition and ask yourself what it is about your product or service that’s better or different.  Then relate that by way of a tangible benefit for your customers.

Then you’ll know what you’re selling.