Category Archives for "Analysis"

0 Are Your Prospects Aware of Their Problem?

Your business provides solutions to a problem your prospects share.  But are your prospects aware of their problem?  This is step zero on the awareness ladder.

What makes Your Prospects Aware of their Problem?

If you refer to my post about the awareness ladder, you will see step 1 is where the customer knows they have a problem but don’t know if there are solutions.

So, let’s think about weight.  I was once overweight.  Indeed, I was surprised to discover the medical profession categorised me as obese.  I had a mental image of obesity and I was not by that standard obese.

I sort of knew I was overweight and I was aware of lack of fitness and that I was generally not healthy.  But none of this was enough to lead me to seek a solution at step 1 of the awareness ladder.  Most of the time, apart from a few crises, I didn’t think about my weight.

So, consider some of your prospects will have some awareness of their problem but they are not actively seeking a solution.  This could be because they know they have a problem but they simply don’t rate it as important.

Contrast that with someone who has a cancerous tumour.  They may be unaware they have the problem.  There may be certain signs that should lead them to seek help but they are not aware of their tumour and so not likely ask for the tests that are available.

It is similar for website issues.  Some website owners know there is a problem but are not seeking solutions.  They know they exist but the problem is not so pressing that they need to do the research.

Other website owners may not be aware of what their website should be doing.  Consequently, they’re not seeking a solution because they’ve never thought their site could do more.

We can see there are at least two types of problem unawareness: deliberate and unconscious.

How Do You Increase Awareness of the Problem?

I have offered a couple of examples of problems that are real although people are not always aware of them.  They may be aware of a few symptoms but they are not themselves pressing and so they ignore them.  Or perhaps they are simply unaware the problem exists at all.

The obvious solution is education.  It is a major issue in health services.  The health issues associated with overweight are well-known but there are many people who do not believe they are so overweight they need to take action.

They need to understand what is overweight and the likely outcomes of ignoring the issue.

Now I’m someone who is generally aware of health issues and yet for many years I did not know my weight was a problem.  It was only when my doctor diagnosed Type II diabetes, I became aware of my problem and started to seek solutions.  It was actually the diagnosis that led me to taking the problem seriously.

These days I see people every day who are overweight and yet many people are like I was, unaware they have a problem.  They could all wait until they get an adverse diagnosis.  But perhaps it would be better for them and the health services if they could learn about weight and its effects.

This educational challenge is a marketing and sales challenge.  You are trying to persuade people to change their behaviour.

The challenge is the same in all areas.  A website that does not do anything is a problem.  Granted, it may not be a pressing problem.  Many organisations get by with a rubbish website but my guess is it’s usually a sign of more deep-seated organisational issues.  Are they selling?  If they’re doing very well by other means, the website issues may not seem important.

But how can an organisation find out what potential it has to improve its marketing and sales?  Many people simply do not know what options are available.  Online technologies have improved significantly in recent years, so fast that most people are not aware of what is within their reach.

Marketing is education.

Through learning, people take part in the market and in society.  Note education does not necessarily lead to sales.  It may help someone move from not knowing they have a problem to acknowledging their problem but they still need to decide they’re going to tackle the problem and find the right solution.

If you educate your audience and offer your solution, some people will walk away and find an alternative and that’s fine.  Businesses need to understand one purpose of their marketing is their contribution to the community.  If an organisation learns about marketing from me and puts what they learn into practice, it is a part of the contribution I make to the community.

Those marketing support for people who need to lose weight are presumably delighted for those who lose weight, following their marketing but through alternative devices.

How do you educate your prospects?

0 Sensitive and Embarrassing Problems

Don’t be fooled by this title, almost any problem can be sensitive or embarrassing.  This is not restricted to intimate health issues or severe emotional problems. Perhaps it is best to start by asking what it is that makes for sensitive and embarrassing problems.

When are Problems Sensitive or Embarrassing?

Some things are likely to be sensitive or embarrassing and you must assume they are until you know otherwise.  There is variation in how people feel about these things but it is their perception that matters and when they first approach you, assume it is sensitive.

Obviously Sensitive and Embarrassing Problems

I’m Type 2 Diabetic and I don’t hide it because I want people to know about the condition and how to avoid it.  I am healthier than I’ve ever been because good health is how to resist a condition that can have a devastating impact in later life.

I am not sensitive about diabetes or embarrassed about it.  Yes, I allowed my health to decline to the point where I developed the condition.  It was not a deliberate choice; I was not aware of how unhealthy I was.

Whilst I believe it is important to be open about this and help people make lifestyles choices that will not lead to the condition, I appreciate some people will not feel the same way.  If I were offering consultancy for lifestyle and diabetes, I would assume this came under the heading of sensitive or embarrassing, even though I don’t find it so.

Potentially Sensitive or Embarrassing Problems

So, let’s take a look at a service that is not normally seen to be sensitive or embarrassing, website design.

The first thing is to note most professionals offer a confidential service.  You work on the assumption your prospect or client is not ready to go public.  If they are it is their decision, not yours.

You see, website design can be sensitive or embarrassing.  I look at dozens of websites and most of them are poorly designed.  This is true of businesses and organisations that have a good reputation or a proven track record.  They may have traffic because of their reputation but it is unlikely their website convert.

Let’s say your prospect has spent a lot of money on a website that does not convert.  This could be sensitive and maybe embarrassing for the person involved.  Note too we may not be talking about a lot of money.  A £20K website should convert.  A web designer charging that amount who does not know how to design a site that converts is dishonest.

A web designer who charges £500 may have some technical expertise but no real understanding of how websites work.  If a small organisation has a £1000 marketing budget, £500 is affordable, a massive outlay for the organisation and 99% of the time a complete waste of money.

So, it is bizarrely at this low-end of the market where you’ll find most defensiveness.  They will furiously throw back at you not only the money spent but also the hours of work the site has involved, the endless arguments about content and on and on …

What to do About Sensitive and Embarrassing Problems

I’m not saying embarrassment over a website is anywhere near as serious as health issues, family breakdown or many of the obviously potentially embarrassing situations.  However, there are always some issues to consider.

Confidentiality

First be clear about confidentiality and stick with it.  Ask permission to make anything public about your prospects and clients.

Sensitivity for the Client

Second do find out how sensitive the problem is for the prospect or client.  Whilst they will control their own publicity, you need to know the limits they work to.  You may sometimes need to challenge these limits but to do that you need to know their view.

I’ve indicated some websites are sensitive and equally some things you would think would be 100% confidential are a part of the story your prospect or client wants to get out there.  I heard a story recently from someone with terminal cancer who wanted to talk pubicly about his incontinence because it was a part of the message he wanted to get across.  If you were providing a service to this client, you need to hear what he is saying and not assume he’s typical of people in this situation.

Appropriate Tools

Third, consider the best tools to work with a client who has this problem.  In some circumstances online meetings might be better than face-to-face meetings, for example.

Your Embarrassment

Fourth, face up to your own sensitivity or embarrassment.  It is possible you’ll be more embarrassed by someone’s problem than they are.  You really must listen carefully to what they say and not allow your feelings to get in the way of your listening.  The fact that you would not make it public, does not mean it is a bad idea.  Always remember it is not your problem, unless you make it into your problem.

Equally, you might not feel at all embarrassed by something that is a real challenge for your client.  For example, someone may be very embarrassed by mice infesting their house.  You might not be too bothered by that problem because you’ve never had it, know how to get rid of it or don’t see it as much of a problem.

But you do need to be careful.  If you are a mouse exterminator, you get in and do the job.  A customer with high anxiety will simply be more pleased to see you.

But what if you are coaching someone who is experiencing stress and freaking out about the mice?  It may be important to deal with the mice (call in the exterminator) but their response to the mice may be the client’s problem.  Don’t assume the problem is the first thing that comes to light.

Do you have examples of problems you thought would be embarrassing and weren’t or were more embarrassing than you first thought?

0 Markets for Your Offer or Proposition

Does every business have a single market?  It might be better to say each marketing campaign has a single market and a business can run several campaigns for several markets.  So, it is worth giving some thought to the markets for your offer or proposition.

Identify Your Markets

Some businesses say their services are for everyone and this can be a problem.  How can you market to everyone?  You need to address your market, so they know you are speaking to them.  What can you possibly say that everyone would hear?

Some businesses mean, when they say they are for everyone, they don’t discriminate on grounds of demographics.  Estate agents for example presumably don’t expect more of their customers to be men or women, they are looking for people who want to buy or sell a house.  Many of us occasionally need their services but most of the time we don’t.

This is a useful albeit basic way of looking at a particular market and I’m sure estate agents segment their market into several more detailed groups.  And they will approach them in different ways.

How Do I Approach it?

My business offers local marketing consultancy to local business, community and voluntary groups.  This is a large market, especially as I offer my services to anyone anywhere in the country.  So, how do I segment my market?

I have two major divisions in my market, (1) local businesses and (2) community and voluntary organisations.  Each of these can be further subdivided, so for local businesses, perhaps (1.1) traders, (1.2) coaches, (1.3) self-employed and so on.

I could then take perhaps 1.2 and further subdivide them (1.2.1) life coaches, (1.2.2) career coaches and so on.

I can subdivide further but let’s say I chose life coaches. This is where I might introduce demographics.  As I build an idea of what a member of this particular market is like, I may find this is a career where many practitioners are women and so my marketing might show that.

Maybe I build an avatar who is a woman and a life coach.  Would this rule out working with male life coaches?  No it would not.  Your knowledge of the market and the way you picture each market is behind the scenes.  It helps you personalise your marketing.  What I say may be addressed to a female avatar but is likely to appeal to all life coaches.

How to Approach Multiple Markets

So, you have identified several markets, now what do you do?

If you are a small concern, choose one as a focus for your marketing.  Choose one likely to be responsive.  If you do this well, your offer will be clearer and you may be approached by others who don’t fit that market.

But your aim is to reach that particular market and that may be the best point of concentration for you.  If you choose to market to more than one small market you are likely to find capacity becomes an issue.

Each market needs to be addressed individually and whilst this is possible, it can become a lot of work.  Bear in mind most campaigns don’t work, so you may be better off focusing on one or very few markets likely to respond positively to your message.

Of course, you need to know about your wider market to find smaller markets likely to be more responsive.  You may find if you begin with a larger market, you get interest from a small section and you can focus your marketing on that section, as you develop your business.

The Pareto Principle might help you with this.  It says, 80% of your business is through 20% of your customers.  There’s a lot more to it but it means whilst you may have a large potential market, the chances are a small corner of it will deliver most of your business.  Find that corner and use your marketing to address them.

Have you found a corner of a larger market that responds positively to your offer?  How did you find them and how do you approach them?

0 One-Time, Occasional and Regular Purchases

There are two ways to think about one-time, occasional or regular purchases.  For the purchaser, a one-time purchase may be desirable, buy it and move on.  However, for the vendor, regular purchases are desirable as they guarantee a regular income.

For the Purchaser

One-time Purchases

Often a one-time solution appeals because the purchaser has resolved their problem and won’t need to think about it again.  Almost anything can be a one-time purchase, although they may be infrequent occasional purchases.

Perhaps an example is courses.  People are unlikely to pay for the same course twice.  Someone who markets courses may be able to sell different courses to the same customer but each course is likely to be a one-time purchase.

Occasional Purchases

Occasional purchases are perhaps most common.  Most of what I buy are occasional purchases because I buy them when something runs out or stops working.  Some things run out regularly but in principle I buy them when I remember to and they are not part of my daily routine.

Regular Purchases

Regular purchases are things like subscriptions.  The big advantage is you don’t need to think about them.  You set up a standing order or direct debit and forget about them.  I suppose this also covers routine purchases; “it’s Monday, so I must buy bananas”.  However, routine purchases are more like occasional because in principle I can skip a Monday if I have bananas left over.

For the Vendor

One-time Purchases

For one-time purchasers, think about how to extend your market.  There are two ways to do this.  One is to build your reputation and ask your customers to recommend you to other potential customers.  The other is to make new offers.

Someone selling online courses might do both.  They sell more through marketing, often via past customers, and at other times create new courses that might appeal to past customers.

Occasional Purchases

Occasional purchases are perhaps more of a headache, especially for businesses with few offers.  A supermarket probably benefits primarily from occasional purchases, although some people shop for the same things on the same day each week.

The occasional purchaser needs to be brought back and reminded you exist.  This is fairly easy to do online and emails from businesses who sold us something years ago and still send reminders, plague many of us.

My nephew is or was interested in skateboards and outdoor activities.  I get emails because I purchased relevant presents in the past.

Regular Purchases

The regular purchaser is like gold.  If they sign up to a monthly subscription, however small, it is guaranteed income.  So long as you continue to provide the service, the chances are most people forget about it and continue to subscribe indefinitely.

Your main challenge is to increase the number of subscriptions.  There are some interesting approaches to this but I’ll leave those for another time.

How do you manage your customers’ journeys between one-time, occasional and regular purchasers?

0 Alternative Solutions to Your Market’s Problem

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?

0 Finding Attractive Opportunities

Whilst naming problems and showing how to solve them is bread and butter for marketing campaigns, there is another way to think about them.  An attractive opportunity can be just as compelling as a solution to a problem.  Many solutions are equally attractive opportunities.

The mousetrap may solve a problem but it is not an opportunity for me or the mice. steinchen / Pixabay

This doesn’t always work.  I have mice, on and off and from time to time contemplate mouse control products.  Mice are a problem and there are several possible solutions.  All of then involve killing mice, hardly scope for an attractive opportunity!  A house without mice is an attractive concept I experienced before the mice arrived!  Mice are a problem that requires a solution, not an opportunity.

I mentioned Utility Warehouse (affiliate link) in my post, Indirect Benefits of Your Offer and they are an example of an attractive opportunity.  Like all genuine business opportunities, they are an opportunity subject to you putting in the work.  Usually people become distributors for Utility Warehouse to build up their income through assets.  They receive rewards for the work they put in and soon discover they are part of a supportive community.

An attractive opportunity can be a solution to some problem.  The challenge to any marketing campaign is to ask, is it better to emphasise the opportunity or the problem?  This will depend on your audience.  Anyone who responds to your offer will get everything you offer.  Some may opt for it because it solves their problem and others because they find the opportunity attractive.

You have options when you market your offer and you are fully equipped when you know what they are!

Website Design: An Example

Many organisations benefit from a website designed to meet their purpose.  The problem is they don’t always know their purpose or see they have something to market online.  A website can present an overview of their work but they won’t necessarily understand how a generic presentation of the opportunities they offer can work for them.

The challenge for a website designer is getting across how online activity opens up a world of possibility for most organisations.   They may need help to see the potential to uncover and meet their desired outcomes.

Sometimes this is a problem.  One prospect could not see how building lists now would benefit them in the future.  Their attention was on the developmental phase of their project and taking on a website was an additional burden.  They have improved their site but still have no list.

Another prospect has the potential to generate much-needed income online but has a designer who is not interested in what they’re doing and has other priorities.  In a few years their projections show they will have to close because they will run out of money.

These examples show how immediate problems can lead to neglected opportunities, no matter how favourable those opportunities may be.

Can anyone suggest an attractive opportunity that does not solve a problem?

0 What If You Do Not Address Your Customers’ Problem?

In my last post, I discussed the costs of your customers’ problem.  This post considers your long-term business prospects and consequences, if you do not address your customers’ problem.  This applies equally to your own business and your customer’s, if your customer is a business that needs to  understand its customer’s problem.

Local Marketing – Worked Example

A cost is something that can be directly assessed, such as income or membership.  In my last post I looked at the impact of poor marketing on organisations.  I considered some indirect consequences such as stress and bureaucracy.  Poor marketing matters because it implies you do not understand your customers’ problem.

The long-term consequences of bad practice is likely to be failure.  For a business, this is likely to mean closure at some stage.

Can You Manage Without Marketing?

However, many organisations continue for years without worrying about marketing.  This is common in community and voluntary sectors, where activity is not so cash dependent.  Many organisations keep going on membership fees and annual fund-raisers because volunteers run them.  It can also be true of businesses that have a proven product or service that maintains income.

So, let’s assume cash flow is not a problem and your organisation is financially secure although not marketing.  It may have established customers that spread the word by word of mouth.  A shop-front or a few ads in Yellow Pages may be enough for some businesses.

This can be a stable state of affairs.  Everyone needs plumbers from time to time and so it may not be necessary to market plumbing.  Most people know they need to call one if water is coming through the ceiling.  They are also likely to be very much aware of prospects and consequences of not calling a plumber.

But are they fully aware of all the services a plumber can offer?  Are they aware of the benefits of calling in a professional and not trying to do it yourself?  Or perhaps of some basic tips if you do attempt something yourself?

For a business such as a plumber, it may be possible to do well with minimal marketing.  So, it is important to understand not all prospects and consequences apply equally to all businesses or organisations.

Likely Prospects and Consequences When You Ignore Marketing

You will note most of these are community prospects and consequences.  This is why all organisations should prioritise marketing for the benefit of the community and not solely to protect their future.  The benefits of marketing are not solely to the business; lose the business and you lose the benefits it brings to the community.

The General Challenge

This question challenges all businesses to think beyond their immediate interests and consider the prospects and consequences of having a business actively solve the problem it has identified.

If you can name the benefits you bring to the wider community, then you can use this in your marketing.  Just as selling double-glazing or solar panels reduced carbon consumption, your business will bring benefits to the wider community.

These benefits are part of your marketing strategy.  After all many people will purchase double-glazing because it reduces fuel bills and keeps their house warmer.  However, they may tell their friends that it reduced carbon consumption and this may encourage some of their friends to consider buying them too.

Marketing is not an exact science.  Something that sells to many people may turn a few people off.  But understanding your customer’s problem, the benefits you bring and a commitment to educating the public about them, is the aim of any considered marketing campaign.

Can you think of examples of prospects and consequences from your marketing campaign?

0 What Does Your Customer’s Problem Cost?

Remember the problem in this element of the Circuit Questionnaire is your customer’s problem. I invite you to ask: what does your customer’s problem cost?  In this post I use my business as a worked example.

What problem does my customer face?

They are organisations and businesses who have found they need to do more and better marketing.  They are good at what they do but fail to find new customers, members or supporters.  The nature of their problem is their need to move from working in their business, ie doing what they enjoy, to working on their business, ie focusing on what they need to do to generate support.

The short-term costs are failure of business. This can happen very quickly, where the business owner does not have enough resources while building their business.  The big issue for any business is cash flow.  Note this is not the same as annual profit.  Cash flow is money in hand at any time.  If finance is not available, a business can fail even if its books over a 12-month period balance.

Many smaller businesses fail the cash flow test because they neglect marketing.  A few customers who pay up-front can consume a lot time, reducing the time available to market the business for the next tranche of clients.

Long-Term Costs for Community Organisations

I’ve based this list on one I wrote some months ago.  It shows how community organisations with secure income and outgoings can be poor at marketing.  No marketing strategy can work if it can’t find and address these problems.

• Organisation does not meet its full potential. If it does not get its message across, it is unlikely to receive the support it needs
• Baroque organisational structures prevent effective decision-making. This is common in community organisations, where a lot of energy goes into democratic structures that are barriers to decision-making. This may be a balance difficult to maintain but if it is not right, it becomes harder for the organisation to get its message across.
• Spending money on solutions that reinforce the problem, eg wrong type of website designer. The more problems an organisation has in its decision-making, the more likely it is to make poor decisions.
• Poor relationships cause increased stress. The more unnecessary bureaucracy, the more likely members feel frustrated and frustration erodes relationships.
• Individuals become isolated as they become more difficult to work with.  With entrenched bureaucracy, people retreat into their own silos and so become less accountable.
• External relationships can become restricted.  Especially where no-one feels able to speak for the organisation.
• Duplication of effort inside and outside.  Poor communication can lead to several organisations attempting the same project.
• People feel unable to act on their own initiative.  The organisation develops a permission culture,

Remember marketing is essentially educational and for many organisations failure to engage with their markets, failure to educate their markets, means they lose direction themselves.  Marketing reminds organisations why they do what they do.  It is expresses their belief in their own purpose.  An organisation that does not market is not communicating externally or internally.

Hidden Costs

Sometimes symptoms of stress are more subtle. johnthan / Pixabay

Not all costs are financial.  An organisation that is not marketing is likely to encounter other difficulties.

• Stress can be positive where it enables people to generate the energy they need to make their case in the marketplace. But where vision is eroded, money is running short and their message is lost, stress becomes a problem.  Stress is not always easy to recognise.  There are occasionally physical symptoms, such as shaking, but more often it manifests as mistakes, poor judgement, fits of temper, etc.  In time extreme stress can result in physical health problems such as high blood pressure.
• Poor diet and lack of exercise. These can happen where a business owner is under stress and not paying attention to their own health.
• Challenged relationships with families and friends, where someone stressed manifests bad temper or neglect.
• A business that does not market is likely to miss opportunities to network and build partnerships as well as miss out on customers. It is not possible to measure how much business is actually missed through poor marketing.

Conclusion

This shows the costs of the problem my business addresses.  Not all organisations with poor marketing encounter all these issues.  These problems can be addressed if the business focuses on marketing.  Usually a focus on market draws attention away from internal conflict.

I chose community organisations because too much bureaucracy can be a real issue for them.  Businesses can find themselves in similar difficulties.  Granted businesses are often much clearer in terms of governance but a permission culture is always a possibility.

I can say in my marketing “if you are having these problems, the chances are your marketing needs attention”.  I can go on to argue that if you are new to marketing, you need my services to get orientated, understand the basics and plan a coherent marketing strategy.  Sometimes you need to resolve internal conflict by looking outwards!

What are the main costs of your customers’ problem?

0 Understanding Urgent Problems

It is interesting the Circuit Questionnaire suggests pain increases urgency (question 4.3).  Doubtless sometimes it does.  For example, where the pain is new and the person experiencing it wishes to return to the status quo ante.  Urgent problems are often new problems.

However, take care claiming pain always leads to urgency.  Where people or organisations live with pain for long periods, they may prefer the pain to the risks attendant on doing something about it.  They develop work arounds that lessen the pain without addressing the root problem.  These may become as much a problem as the original cause.

So, if you approach an organisation for the first time, it is possible its problems are symptoms of deeper issues, unaddressed for fear of the pain they would uncover.  For example, the staff may avoid bullying through elaborate strategies to keep out of the bully’s way.  Over time these strategies may become enshrined in organisational practice.  Anything is better than unleashing the wrath of the bully.

What Makes a Problem Urgent?

So, whilst pain can be a reason for urgency, there are others.  You may wish to argue all these reasons cause pain. This illustrates why pain is perhaps not always the clearest indicator of urgency.

What Difference Does Urgency Make?

If your customers have urgent problems they are most probably seeking an immediate solution.  It then depends on your solution.  If someone’s website stops working, it’s likely to be urgent and need a technical fix.  There may be some issue within the organisation, eg someone has messed around with something but that can be addressed.

However, some urgent problems are symptoms of something deeper and some businesses offer support to diagnose deeper problems.  A series of crises may mean something is going on under the surface that needs to be addressed.  It may not be urgent and to focus solely on urgent problems may overlook deeper issues.

It helps to be clear about the sort of problem you handle.  No-one expects a website designer to tackle deep-seated organisational conflict.  The website will never work properly while conflict persists. No-one expects the designer to raise it, let alone help resolve it.

A coach or consultant, working on deep-seated issues, may help resolve several urgent issues, as they address their causes.  The point is both approaches are valid and it helps to be clear about which approach you use.

Can you think of other causes of urgent problems?

0 Problems that Cause Pain

Problems that cause pain can be acute or chronic, frequent or persistent.  Indeed it is likely that some problems you encounter will cause some sort of pain.  Pain may be an incentive for a prospect to approach you but be aware they may need specialist attention.

The question suggests three types of pain: physical, psychological and emotional.  The first point to note is some problems can involve all three!  Physical pain will have an emotional and psychological impact.  Psychological and emotional pain can lead to physical pain in various ways.  So, let’s have a go at distinguishing them.

Physical Pain

This is perhaps the easiest to identify.  We all know what it is and what it feels like.  Physical pain may have an immediate and obvious cause or it may not be immediately clear what is causing it.

It is tempting to say leave it to medical practitioners.  If there is pain, get it treated by someone who knows what they’re doing.

However, there are circumstances where employers for example need to be concerned about physical pain.  Repetitive actions and posture are examples of workplace practices that can have a direct impact on the human body.  People will put up with discomfort without complaining for years!

How many managers try sitting in their secretaries’ chairs?  I once sat in my PA’s chair and could not believe how uncomfortable it was.  She was used to it and never complained.  This is not a medical issue, although it may become a medical issue if the problem is not identified and resolved.

Removing the cause of physical pain is not always a medical process.

Psychological Pain

This is about stress and anxiety; it is about how we perceive the world and respond to it.

Everyone benefits from some stress but if the stress never resolves and builds, it can become morbid.  Managers who support their staff by praising their work, through supportive meetings and so on can reduce stress in the workplace.

If psychological pain becomes a serious problem it is likely to be seen through a loss of higher faculties.  The person suffering psychological pain may not feel pain in any way they can articulate.  They will make mistakes, often trivial or frequent or their behaviour will become more abrasive or controlling.

In some ways this is the hardest of the three types of pain to identify, let alone resolve.  The problem can become embedded in the person.  Any change in their environment could be interpreted in a negative way.

Emotional Pain

It may be hard to disentangle emotional from psychological pain but usually with emotional pain there is a reason.  A bereavement, loss of a partner, serious illness are all examples of things that  cause emotional pain.

The problem here is often it is not possible to remove the cause.  For a bereaved person, for example, their grieving needs to take its course.  At least, it is easy to understand the reason and make allowances, provide support, etc.

Where the emotion exhibited arises from psychological pain, there may be no obvious reason for it.  An abrasive member of staff may be in psychological pain and it manifests as anger.  But even they may not work out the reason for it.

Conclusions

If your customers’ problem can be described as physical, psychological or emotional pain, it helps if you can describe it in your marketing material.  That way those who experience pain themselves or in close associates, will see you understand their problem.

It is worth finding out how people with the problem describe the pain themselves.  You may know the technical term for the problem you solve but some people with the problem will not recognise it.  If you can find out how they describe it and use their language in your marketing, this may be an advantage.

Whilst pain motivates many people, it is not always important.  Someone who is anxious about the problems they may encounter in a demanding role, may be motivated by fear of possible future pain.  Or are they?  They want to be at their best and maybe that is a better offer than alleviation of pain.

How important is pain to your customers?