Alternative solutions are an important step in your sales funnel or marketing campaign. On the Awareness Ladder, rung 2 is awareness of solutions to your problem.
Any prospective customer will know they have a problem and right or wrong, they will set out to find solutions. They may find several solutions, possibly including yours.
Rung 2 is interesting because it best illustrates why marketing is important. Your prospect has not necessarily identified the right problem. If they have, how do they choose between the solutions on offer?
You can see why it is important to educate your market. Identifying the wrong problem can be an expensive mistake. Trying the wrong solution can be frustrating at best and may have serious consequences.
The Dash for a Solution
It is worth pausing here to recognise something I’ve experienced many times as a development worker. Often when someone has a problem, what they present to me is a solution. They will approach me to help them with their solution: “Chris, can you show me how to …”.
Often they are aware of a problem and reach for the first available solution. It is worth back-tracking to the original problem. The first solution to hand is not always the best, even assuming they have correctly identified the problem.
This question in the circuit questionnaire challenges you to consider all the solutions available and it is worth taking time to consider which is best under the circumstances. The circumstances include costs, effectiveness, the skills of the people involved, long-term versus short-term consequences and there will be more. It is always worth doing this, even if you stick with the original solution in the end.
A common example is: “We need a website”. My first question, which can be asked in many ways is: “What for?” This is a good example of a solution to a non-existent problem. “Everyone else has a website” is not a reason to have a website. If you do want a website, it has to be a good idea to design it to solve some problem. Even better to solve the problem some other but better way!
Identifying Possible Solutions
Part of your marketing approach is to find alternative solutions to the problem and show how yours differs from them. Some alternatives may be better for some prospects and that is fine. Your task is to find the customers for whom your solution is most appropriate.
Helping people find the right solution to their problem is a valuable service any business can offer. You will meet people who have come to the wrong person and it is better to move them on in their search for the right solution.
So, assuming we know what the problem is, here are some solutions to consider:
Do It Yourself
This is an attractive solution for businesses and organisations that are not cash rich. They still need to consider whether this is their best use of time. Another issue is whether they have the necessary skills in-house.
One option is to pay for training and development so that work can continue in-house once someone has developed the skills. This may work so long as it is a good use of time. Similarly, appointing a member of staff with the skills may be another option, so long as the attendant overheads are less than using a commercial service.
It is possible DIY is a false economy but not necessarily so. After all most organisations do some things in-house. Sorting out what needs to be bought in is a challenge.
Commercial Competition
Another thing to consider is whether your competitors can offer a solution. For some prospects a referral is the best service you can offer. If you understand their problem and know someone who can offer the solution they need, that’s fine.
If it is a good referral you will have impressed both the prospect and your competitor. Another advantage of doing this is it helps clarify what you offer in the eyes of the world. If you take on prospects who don’t really fit your offer, not only are you likely to disappoint them, you confuse your genuine market.
Of course, if you are with a prospect, reviewing the competition can be helpful as they may see you are the best offer for them. If not, make the referral!
Doing Nothing
It is tempting to say this is the worse option but it depends. Is the problem real? Is it urgent? Are there other priorities? It might be desirable to have a website but is it worth it?
If something is desirable it may be worth scheduling it. This means you may put it in for review in a few months’ time. You don’t have to forget about it but recognise there are not enough hours in the day to do everything.
Of course, some problems are really tempting to ignore but must be tackled. You need to name these and make sure they are not in the “do nothing” category.
What’s your experience of solutions masquerading as problems?