So, what's in it for me?

by Daniel Palay
July 20, 2016

It’s a familiar scenario for any entrepreneur. You are at a happy hour, a conference, an event, a tradeshow, on an elevator. You happen upon an executive from one of your target customers. You introduce yourself. She says: “Tell me a little about your company.” You then proceed to do the most pointless thing possible: you tell her about your company. But wait, is that not exactly what she asked? No. What she really asked was: “What can you do for me?”

Now, before we go blaming Jill Executive for being self-centered, cold and uncaring, let’s look at things from her perspective. She wants to know if and how your product is going to solve one or more of her business problems. Business executives tend to think about problems in terms of how they impact their business, rather than the underlying cause. It is not their job to understand the relationship between your product and their (perceived) problem; it is your job to connect the two.

Wait, isn’t that exactly what you did when you told the VP of a logistics company about your real time behavioral analytics algorithm? Was it not obvious that this algorithm can be applied to traffic patterns to better predict which routes drivers should use and when based on likelihood of traffic jams? The short answers are no and no. This executive cares about the problems of delayed deliveries, excessive overtime and rising fuel costs, none of which appear related to predictive behavioral analytics.

Good entrepreneurs know that the most innovative products offer solutions to systemic, underlying problems, rather than their surface-level manifestations. An inevitable disconnect occurs when the entrepreneur attempts to sell the solution based on the underlying problem to someone who is experiencing a seemingly unrelated business problem. Context is key, as is the story behind that context.

When you have the attention of that logistics executive, your company does not provide predictive behavioral analytics, it offers a way to cut an average of 26 minutes off of a delivery driver’s route each day. Now, you have her attention; you’ve met her half way and she can easily see the connection between what you are saying and the late deliveries, overtime and fuel costs that constantly have her reaching for antacids. It is even more helpful if you have some idea of which of those problems is most important to this particular customer and be able to place the greatest emphasis on that one.

As I have stated before, and, undoubtedly, will state again, understanding how your customer experiences the problems you aim to solve is paramount. With that understanding, it is possible to construct appropriate stories to connect the customer’s needs to your offerings. Seeing one product from many angles is not always easy, particularly when it involves different narratives for different customers. But, as I tell all of my clients, it is the key to running a customer-focused business; it demonstrates an undeniable understanding of the customer’s pain points, which is by far the best way to capture their attention (and their business). 

Dan Palay is a Chicago-based consultant, specializing in marketing and business development for early-stage and business service companies. Please feel free to contact at [email protected].

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