Category Archives for "Analysis"

0 Frequent and Persistent Problems

So, we have had a look at chronic and acute problems.  The next two questions in the Circuit Questionnaire ask similar questions about frequent and persistent problems.

Is the Problem Frequent?

A frequent problem recurs.  It may be worth asking why it recurs.  Is it something in:

It can of course be any combination.  Your customer may have identified they have a recurring problem.  They may have a good idea what the reason is and approach you because they think you can solve the problem.  Depending on what you sell, you may be happy to hand your solution over or concerned to probe a little deeper.

Or they may not have clue what the cause of the problem is.  They cannot see a pattern and turn to you for a fresh pair of eyes.

Is the Problem Persistent?

A persistent problem may have been there for a long time.  It is possible the client may have no idea when or why the problem started.  They may have noticed it and over time realised it is a problem and needs to be resolved in some way.

It may be worth asking whether it is a constant presence, like mould growing on an internal wall or a high density of frequent problems.  A fire alarm that often trips out could be seen as a persistent problem, especially if it doesn’t trip out often enough to call for doing something about it!

So, a member of staff whose behaviour triggers problems could be seen as a frequent problem.  The problem may be persistent where several members of staff adopt the same behaviour.

Frequent or Persistent?

This is not just semantics because frequent and persistent problems may need to be approached differently.  If a staffing problem is one person, the chances are they are the cause of the problem.  They need more training or they have a grudge or they are stressed.

If it is a persistent problem, affecting several staff the chances are the problem is elsewhere.  It may be not so much that staff need more training as an issue with the training itself.  If one person has a grudge it could be their problem; if several display similar behaviour maybe they have a point?  One stressed person may have a problem at home, if it is several people maybe the problem is in the work they are doing or how it is organised.

If you sell mouse traps and someone has mice, it is perhaps a simple sale.  If they keep coming back, is it a frequent problem or persistent?  At what point does anyone ask, where are these mice coming from and is there any way we can address the source of the problem?  If you sell mouse traps, that’s fine, you know the problem and you have plenty of customers.  A specialist in rodent extermination may have a more challenging approach.

1 How to Identify Preventable Problems

So, the problem you address is a problem experienced by your market.  It helps if you have experienced the problem too because that shows you understand it.  However, the problem must be owned by your market.  In today’s post I shall discuss some early questions about preventable problems in the Circuit Questionnaire.

Is this a problem that occurs at a specific point in time?

This question asks whether the problem is acute or chronic.

Acute problems happen at a specific time and usually have a clear cause.  Everything was going well until something happened that triggered the current problem.  Sometimes, removing the cause will help solve the problem.  However, it is not always possible to remove the cause and the challenge is to make changes in response to it.

A chronic problem has been around for some time with no clear cause.  There may have been a cause a long time ago but the problem has become a state a being.  Here the reason for the problem may be internal; the person experiencing it will need to make changes to tackle it.

Acute and chronic problems are not all that different.  Most problems have characteristics of both.  So, an acute problem triggered by an event may be no problem at all for one person and an insurmountable obstacle for another.  You can point to the cause and know the day and hour when the problem kicked in but the issue is really how the person responded to it.

Sometimes the cause is a presenting problem, there is another deeper issue.  If someone comes to you seeking removal of a presenting problem, is it your job to do as they ask or probe a bit deeper?

Some businesses deal with the immediate problem.  They are not offering to diagnose deeper problems; they specialise, it’s what they do.  So, a pest exterminator exterminates pests.  If someone approaches citizens’ advice and asks for help with mice infestation, is their job to help them find a suitable contractor, probe a bit deeper or both?

Or is it something that it is worth preventing before it happens?

This question implies potential customers may not be aware of the problem.  This is a problem health services face all the time.  How do you persuade people to make changes to their lifestyles on the grounds that such changes will prevent problems in the future?

Eating these and similar foods may cause type 2 diabetes in the future. Whose problem is this? ArtsyBee / Pixabay

What is the problem here?  The problem you are going to prevent in the future, may well be your problem.  A health service faced with increasing numbers of patients with diabetes may seek to persuade patients to change their lifestyles to reduce the numbers requiring treatment in the future.  Whose problem is that?

If I have an unhealthy lifestyle, it is a problem for me but I won’t necessarily see it that way.  The challenge is how to market the message “your lifestyle is unhealthy and it is in your best interests to do something about it”.

My unhealthy lifestyle is a chronic problem and the challenge is to do something about it before it becomes acute.  Once it becomes acute, I may have an incentive but it may also be too late.  The task is an educational campaign that shows me the immediate value of doing something about my unhealthy lifestyle.

Is your problem preventable?

Even if the problem is worth preventing before it happens, there is still a question whether it is preventable.  The consequences of an unhealthy lifestyle may be preventable, if action leads to changes in my lifestyle now.  Once I develop the acute problem there may be no cure.

So, are you trying to prevent people developing the problem, helping people with the problem resolve it or offering palliative care to those stuck with it?

So, you might offer a service that supports people in demanding roles, so that they can review their work and anticipate likely problems.  You may support people in demanding roles, who have a problem and need help resolving it.  You may support people who were in a demanding role, crashed and burned and now need to rebuild their career.

Is it worth investing to prevent?

People fail.  They make a mess of things all the time.  The challenge is to learn from the experience, pick yourself up and start over.  Without failure we would not encounter experienced people who have learned how to handle failure.

People in challenging positions sometimes think they were set up to fail.  Perhaps a malevolent manager put them there deliberately to fail.  But actually, many people learn from their mistakes.

So, when is it worth investing in prevention?  Obviously where someone’s health is at stake, it may be worth taking precautionary methods.  However, one of the things people who face problems learn is the value of making space to reflect and be aware of the situation they are in.  They may undertake coaching not because they don’t feel competent but because they are competent.

Experienced people know they need help.

Is this a problem that the proposition prevents before it happens, or solves after it happens?

You can see this is an important issue.  If your market is professional people, you may be seeking people who want to prepare themselves for problems through your services.  They are confident they can solve their own problems and so they are not seeking a consultant who can solve problems for them.

If someone has a problem and needs help resolving it, they may have less experience and need help with their approach to problem solving.  It may be they need some specific expertise they can’t find in-house and if that is what you offer, that’s fine.

But let’s assume you are a website designer.  Someone’s website is not bringing in the business they were expecting.  How do you know the problem is with the website?  It could equally be a problem in the customer’s organisation.  If it is, your work on the website will make little difference.

Your ability to dig deeper and seek the really causes of problems is crucial, whatever business you are in.  Find out what the real problem is and be prepared to make a referral if it is something you cannot address.  Solving the immediate problem without addressing the reason for the problem may do your business little good.

Can you remember when you solved a problem but did not address its cause?  What happened?

2 What is Your Market’s Problem?

This is my first post after the summer break and today I’m making a start on the fourth this element of the circuit questionnaire, the Problem.  The thing to remember here is this problem is your market’s problem.  You might have any number of problems but these need not detain us here.

In its earliest drafts this element began with a staccato set of questions. At no point did it ask “What is the Problem?”  If you don’t know what your market’s problem is, how can you understand its nature?

How well do you know your customers?  Do you know them well enough to really understand their problem?  You are seeking to bring together two things here:

Some Examples

The first is far more important than the second when you reach out to people.  This is particularly important for people offering coaching or counselling but it is actually important for almost everything.  Here are few examples:

Hairdresser

“I know what it’s like to have unmanageable hair when you’re going to that crucial interview, meeting an important client, speaking to a group of business people.  I know how important it is to look good and how dreadful it is when something goes wrong with that first impression.”

Optician

“I know what a liability failing eyesight can be, perhaps you first noticed it driving or find you have to sit near the front in seminars.  But you dread having to put in contacts or looking geeky in specs.  We offer a discrete and supportive service for business people so they can carry on working with a new vision!”

Wholefood Shop

“Good wholesome food can be a challenge – you may be wondering, what are the best things to eat, what’s in season, how do I cook it?  We provide a helpful service to our customers.  Our staff are ready and briefed to explain how you can cook our products and their nutritional value.  We know busy people are often unable to devote a lot of time to cooking but a healthy enjoyable diet is worth putting in a little effort.  We’ll show you how to get the most benefit for the smallest investment of time.”

And so you could go on.  I’ve used a market of busy business people as the basic – and you could describe the problem for each of these businesses as your particular market might express it.  Try to show you have experienced the problem, you know the solution and work through the implications of your problem for your particular market.

Naming the Problem

Remember, someone with a problem does not necessarily know what it is.  So, someone who keeps losing their temper might be aware they have a problem but not aware the cause may be stress.  If you ask “Are you stressed?” they would answer “No”.  Ask “Do you keep losing your temper?” and they might get in touch.  You can then explore with them whether the problem is stress or something else.

The questions that follow in the circuit questionnaire, under 4.1, help you get a clearer perspective on your problem and we’ll look at them next time.

Can you describe potential customers who may have a problem but do not know what it is?

0 Negative Side-Effects to Your Offer

Negative side-effects happen where there is a cost, constraint or difficulty associated with your offer.  The thing to remember is negative side-effects are unavoidable but they can be turned to your advantage.

The key to managing negative side-effects is to expect them and so prepare your clients for them.  The question on the Circuit Questionnaire at 3.18 suggests you could use a statement like this:

Now you can get {benefit} without {traditionally associated cost}!

The first thing to note is this is a cost associated with a benefit.  What you’re saying is your offer addresses this traditional associated cost.

So, let’s say you are a website designer.  You could claim a variety of costs would be eliminated:

Use the Value Triangle!

One point to note: you can save time by paying more money or you can save money by spending more time.  You are unlikely to come up with an offer that saves both time and money.  Indeed, I discussed this very issue in my post about the Value Triangle.

Consider Your Prices

If you’re offering to save your customer time, this means you are using your time.  So, you charge more because you have limited time too!  However, you are:

You should charge for the time you save for your customer and not the time it takes you to complete the job.  After all you can do the job quicker because of the time you’ve spent over years learning your trade!

Similarly, the DWY approach has its own advantages.  The customer will understand their site, how it works, etc.  They will establish a routine that helps them keep their site up-to-date.

Help Your Customer Decide

The point is the customer must decide which of the available options to choose.  The important thing is they make an informed decision and understand its implications.

If you have several offers, you should be able to suggest a couple of viable options.  Alternatively, you can sometimes make referrals to providers who can make a better offer.

So, you can say your offer is time-saving and reasonably priced but make the price comparison with other time-saving offers.  A DWY offer is not time-saving per se and so don’t compare it with the price of a DFY offer.

Use the Value Triangle to find out what is important to your customer.  A conversation around how the three factors interact will equip them with a model they can use with any provider.  If they are going to pay more, they can reasonably expect higher quality and faster delivery.  Pay less and expect to sacrifice either quality or speed.

Be aware of other advantages.  A DWY approach sacrifices speed but not quality and it has other advantages, as a learning opportunity for the customer.  A high-speed, low quality fix may be what you need under some circumstances, eg where you are testing a market and a rough and ready site is all you need for the present.

OK, that brings us to the end of “Proposition”, the third element in the Circuit Questionnaire.  I will pick up with the fourth element, “Problem” in a few weeks’ time.

1 Indirect Benefits of Your Offer

An indirect benefit is where a third-party benefits as well as or instead of your client or customer.  There are also incidental benefits your client or customer experiences beyond what you originally planned.

Referral Marketing

Referral marketing is a deliberate approach to indirect benefits.  You have an offer that will benefit your customers.  If a business partner refers your service to one of their customers, your partner will benefit from what their customer receives from you.  All three parties win from this approach.

A good example of this approach is Utility Warehouse (this is an affiliate link, included to illustrate this post.  Contact me if you are interested).  They offer an attractive package of discounted utility services.  They use referral marketing to sell their packages, which means they engage distributors, who are self-employed.  So, let’s see who wins.

This is an interesting business model and it is worth studying to understand the power of indirect benefits.  When you have a win-win arrangement, it changes the basis of doing business.  Distributors benefit directly from collaboration.  There is an incentive to generosity built into this approach.

That’s true for any form of referral marketing.  The mindset has to be one of generosity and not competition.  This does not guarantee everything boles along swimmingly!  This approach requires a lot of patience and very often the benefits are not immediately clear.  You have to trust other businesses will in the long run act in your interests.

Causes

Of course, causes are examples of where a third-party benefits, often at the expense of the client or customer.  Perhaps we don’t always think of people who make donations as clients or customers, after all they do not usually receive any direct benefit from their contribution.

However, just as businesses value repeat customers, so charities value repeat donors.  This means they need to build a relationship with their donors.  Whist the donor will expect as much of their contribution as possible to help the beneficiaries of the scheme, many will value reports on the effectiveness of the cause and possibly other incentives to continue with their support.

If the donor feels they are part of something, they are more likely to continue with their support.  The same applies to any customer, if they feel as if they are part of something they are more likely to agree to work with you or shop with you.  Maybe it is not obvious how you will do this but it is always worth asking the question.

Other Benefits to the Prospect

It’s always worth asking what benefits your customer or clients receive in addition to their main reason for buying.  Often these positive side effects can be more important than the thing itself.

So, someone might purchase double-glazing to reduce their fuel bills.  Double-glazing also reduces carbon emissions and this side-effect might be of value to the customer.  If they approach you to reduce their fuel bills, there’s no harm in pointing out other benefits.

It is always helpful to listen to your customers and ask how your product or service has benefitted them.  It is not impossible they will experience benefits you never anticipated.  These may be universal enough to add to your marketing copy.

It is worth reviewing possible side-effects as you develop your product or service.  These might accrue to family life, working life or directly to the customer.

The Context of Indirect Benefits

It’s not really possible to review each of these because so much depends upon the nature of the offer.  However, it is worthwhile being aware of the circumstances in which indirect benefits might arise:

Can you think of additional benefits you’ve found for your offer?  Have you used these to support your marketing?

0 The Longevity of Your Promotion

You have an offer and one way to sell it is through a promotion, a marketing plan for your offer.  The thing you promote is your proposition, the rationale behind your offer. The longevity of your promotion is one thing to consider.

So, if you have a shop front, you could display a sign offering a discount on one of your offers.  The discount is likely to be more effective if it is for a short period:  “For one week only …”  “Offer ends on Saturday …”

If you are going to do it that way, it is usually a good idea to have a reason for the promotion that you can make public, scarcity or urgency, for example.

Where your offer is long-term, perhaps if it is the main thing you sell, then you need a long-term promotion.

So, let’s take a look at short and long-term promotions:

Short-Term Promotions

The main thing to remember is plan about how you are going to combine short-term and long-term promotions.  A product launch for a new offer can pave the way for a long-term promotion.  Once people find you through a short-term promotion, they may be interested to explore what else you offer.

How have you organised your offers, to encourage people to explore everything you offer?

0 Understanding Your Offer

Making your offer readily understood by your target market is not always easy.  There are several barriers to your prospects understanding your offer.  Your task is to find out what they are and address them.

Why Prospects May have Difficulty Understanding Your Offer

Your offer may be difficult to understand.  Even though you are describing your offer very clearly, there may still be barriers to understanding.  Where you have a specialist market, it is possible your prospects will understand your offer.  It doesn’t matter if other people don’t because they are not your prospective market.

You may have difficulty because you approach a problem from a unique perspective.  This can mean your prospects make assumptions and read your offer according to those assumptions.  So, they may have difficulty grasping your unique perspective.

Again, you may have an offer that addresses a problem many people have but do not recognise as a problem.  So, many people who are overweight do not see it as a problem.  You will need to persuade them not only that they are overweight but also it is a problem they need to take seriously.

And of course, you may find your explanations are not compelling for one reason or another.  You may provide too little or too much information, poorly expressed, too technical or too simple.  You may inadvertently put people off by expressing something that has a negative impact.  A common mistake is to attempt to market your offer on features, neglecting its benefits.

How to Help Prospects Understand Your Offer

Be clear about the distinction between features and benefits.  If your offer is technically complex, does your prospect really need all the detail?  They are going to pay you for your knowledge of the technical complexities.  Initially everyone will want to know the benefits and that’s where you should start.

Some customers will want a lot of technical detail, while others won’t.  Be prepared if they ask and have technical explanations to hand.  But usually, even those who ask are not seeking all the details.  They are most likely seeking reassurance you understand what you are doing for them and how they can make best use of it.

Use case studies where prospects may have difficulty grasping your offer.  A story may be more effective than a theoretical account.  You can back up your story with testimonials, providing social proof.

Illustrations, diagrams, tables and statistics may help convey information more effectively than a written account.  Of course, it depends on what your offer is.  A product is something you can photograph whilst a service may be harder to convey visually.

Where you have a lot of information to impart, remember marketing is educational; there is a significant overlap between marketing and education.  If your marketing material includes ideas your prospects can apply immediately, it will enhance your offer’s credibility.  These are the ideas behind the product launch.

Which Media Should You Use to Communicate Information?

We have far more media available to us today to communicate information about our offers and so it is important to think about the best ways you have to market your offer.

If you market locally, you can meet prospects and explain your offer, picking up when things are unclear and answering questions as they come up.  This may be the best way to market a complex offer.  However, you still have to find your prospects and persuade them to meet you.  Also, this can be more difficult if they are too far away for you to meet face-to-face.  Skype and similar services, can be almost as effective as meeting face-to-face.

Some Other Options

You will note this is a mix of online and physical resources.  Remember, the Internet is relatively recent and many marketers are still experimenting with approaches to getting their message across.  So, join in the experiments and persist until you find an approach that works for you.

How have you successfully marketed a complex idea?  Are there ideas you have struggled to market effectively?

1 Third-Party Prospects

It is sometimes worth considering whether you can sell your offer to third-party prospects.  A third-party is someone who makes a purchase for someone else.

Gifts

Usually, we call this a gift and for some businesses gifts are a major source of income.  Before you move on to consider some other aspect of your business, it worth asking whether your business has potential in this market.

Let’s consider the range of possibilities for a gift.  Remember sometimes third parties make a purchase and we would not think of it as a gift.

Can you think of ways you can adapt your offer for third-party prospects?

0 How Many Questions Need Your Prospects Answer?

You need to know whether your product or service will benefit your prospect. If your charges are high, you don’t want to sell to someone who will not benefit from your product or service.  So, where you are selling something complex, you need to ask questions.

Questions Commensurate with Commitment

If you want someone to download your ebook in return for adding their email address to your list, you do not need to find out much to sign someone up.  Downloading an ebook, they may choose not to read, is not worth too much effort!

You really must ask for their email address because you are using the ebook to build your email list.  Strictly speaking that’s all you need!  Most businesses ask for a name as well.  This helps you personalise your emails.

You do not ask a lot of people on your list.  You hope they will read or view your offer and open at least some of your emails.

If someone shows interest in your premium products, they will understand you don’t want to sell them something that will not help them.  So, a few more questions can help you both make a good decision.

Classification Questions

Ask questions to work out which products or services are likely to be suitable.  You aim to find out more about the prospect and use the information to discuss a couple of products or services that may be helpful.

I do this through my Community Marketing Conversation.  I ask four main questions and have several sub-questions to ask if relevant.

My main aim is to find out whether I can help the prospect.  If I cannot, I aim to give them at least one good referral.

My second objective is to work out which of my services are most suitable for the prospect.  I usually offer a choice of two services.

Qualification Questions

Ask these to decide whether the prospect has the qualifications they need to take up your offer.

They are not always necessary but examples include, where you:

So, how many questions do you need?  It depends.  You need to think this through for your own business and be able to explain to prospects what you are doing, why you’re doing it and what you will do with their answers.

What questions do you use to recruit customers?

1 Conversations with Target Markets

Assume you have identified your target market.  This is not always easy but if you can do this you have no excuse for not having conversations with it!  Conversations with target markets are vital, if you are not going to waste time developing products or services no-one needs.

This post is about opportunities for such conversations but first let’s recall why they are important: your target market always has a better idea what it needs than you do.

That seems clear-cut.  Disagree by all means but if you think you know better, there’s no harm in checking out your ideas with your target market.

However, people don’t always know what they need.  Possibly, they know what they want.  This is why you need conversations.  Conversations enable ideas to develop; when this happens you have a potential customer in front of you.

In-Person Conversations

With a local market, you have many opportunities for in-person conversations.  If not, you will still be able to meet some people potentially interested in your business.

If you review my posts about testimonials, you will see recorded interviews are a good way to get testimonials; to discover what your clients might value from you in the future.

You can just as easily interview potential customers as you can actual customers.  If you find people who want to support you and are part of your potential market, you can ask them what they need.

So, how do you find people for your conversations?  Any referral marketing approach helps.  Ask contacts if they can think of anyone who might be in your market and willing to meet you for a conversation.

Online Conversations

You can hold face-to-face conversations online using Skype, Google Hangouts or other similar means.  Other possibilities include conversations:

There are no guarantees these will work but they are all worth a try.

If you have an email list, the chances are the people on it are interested in what you are doing and so it is worth asking if they would like to make contact for a conversation.

Seed Product Launches

These are usually online but could be done as a local event.  This is a general outline of the approach.

You decide on a product you want to develop.  This is likely to appeal to your target market.  Let it be known you are planning to develop the product and are looking for people to help you.

You charge a modest amount to those who are taking part.  This cements their commitment to several meetings with you.

You present your ideas at online or in-person meetings and receive feedback.  The aim to engage the group in developing the product.

Once  you have finished the product, give a copy to each member of the group and then you are free to sell the product, most likely at a higher price than the price you charged the seed launch group.  The seed launch group experience both working with you and the finished product and so their fee is well worth it!

Developing a product this way means it is more likely to meet the needs of your target market than a product developed in isolation.  You still do most of the work but guided by the insights of a group of people who will value the finished product.  They may also be pleased to recommend the finished product to their contacts.

There are many more ways you can find opportunities to hold conversations with a view to shaping your products or services to meet your target market’s needs.  Have you any favourite approaches?