What is your prospect’s main concern? I’ve written about how the Value Triangle works and how to explain the Value Triangle to prospects. You will remember, or follow the links for a reminder, your customers can have two out of three values – high quality, fast speed and low-cost.
Most customers can say which of these they prefer, although perhaps most will not have given much thought to these until you ask. But are they really their main concern?
Towards Your Market’s Problem
The real problem you have is to uncover your prospect’s concerns. It is common to find the prospect knows they have a problem but does not know what it is! One of the most useful services you provide is to listen carefully and help them define their concern.
You will often be approached with a presenting problem. This is a real problem but conceals a deeper issue that really needs to be addressed. For example, many years ago I knew an advice worker whose client slammed a parcel in front of her and asked: “What am I supposed to do with this?”
The parcel contained a whole fish!
The advice worker was not expert in gutting and preparing fish but dug a bit deeper. She found the man’s wife had recently died and he was having difficulty coping.
I’m not sure the Value Triangle would be much use here. The man had a problem and needed help to resolve it. He may have some views about cost and time and quality but they are hardly the point!
Everyone is different and the real challenge is generalising from specific problems many people experience. There are many bereaved people around and some need to learn to cook. It may be possible to find a market for teaching cooking and support for the bereaved. Usually you need research to generalise solutions from individual presenting problems.
Mistaken Markets
This is all very well but let’s imagine a business owner approaches you and says they need a new website. You’re a web developer and so they are in the right place if they do indeed need a new website.
The first issue is to decide whether a new website is in fact what they need. It is clearly what they want but your challenge is probe further.
- Do they have a website already?
- If so, what’s wrong with it?
- What is the purpose of their website?
- How do they manage their website?
When you ask questions like this, you may find the problem is not their website so much as their organisation. They need help with marketing or business coaching or personal coaching.
Most web developers are not equipped to dig into these issues and indeed would see little point in doing so. After all, their prospect presents with the website as their main concern.
Let’s say you are a business coach. You would be interested in asking these questions but lack the opportunity to do so because someone presenting with a broken website will go to a web developer. You don’t want to stop people who need a web developer going there but how do you find those who actually need business coaching?
Marketing is Essential
This is where marketing is essential. You can educate your market to recognise the problems you solve before they approach the wrong business-owner. The chances are many prospects approach the wrong people at first. This is where collaboration and networking is important. If a prospect comes to me with a concern I cannot address, then I can signpost them to a more appropriate provider.
Perhaps small groups of complementary businesses can be more effective than a business with a specific offer working in isolation. After all, if their main concern requires business coaching it does not mean they will not need a website at some stage.
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