What will I sell to my customer?
One of the most complex questions that can be asked of yourself since most entrepreneurs are extremely passionate and subjectivity clouds objectivity. Though the question asked is “Sell” to customer, it has far more depth than what is seen at the superficial level. The immediate thought would be of a product sale leading to focussing on features, unique selling proposition and the likes. But do think beyond it. A sale is only a transaction but what would you like to leave behind in the customers mind and heart? An experience? technological superiority? A visionary? Expertise? Stability? Trust? Durability? A revolutionary? What kind of a brand would you want to build? When you have thought of this when the question was asked on what you would like to sell to the customer, you are thinking strategy.
The core of strategy is to leave a lasting impact. All aspects of the engagement from marketing to sales to support forming the entire life cycle of the customer experience is around “What do I want my customers to perceive me as? This will lead to affinity and over a period, loyalty, that transcends, and most times subjugates intellectual reasoning. In the age of Digital marketing where we can segment, categorize, and communicate to a specific target segment, we miss out on these and look at tactical communication.
Let’s get to a scenario. A leading retailer who imports his products from the best of manufacturers across the world and caters to the “budget conscious customer”. He understood the demography of the market and placed his showrooms in densely populated residential locations. So far so good. They were large showrooms and had excellent visibility and great positioning. The arbitrage of volume, imports and catering to this market helped in the profitability too. He realised that he could do more if he had a clearance sale. He launched it and did phenomenal business. He got caught onto it and then started launching discount sales at every given opportunity. His sales started going southwards. In spite of launching discount sales, he found that the sales even during that period started declining. Can you understand why? He became known as a discount retailer. People subconsciously also started to believe that he was making too much money on a normal sale if he can discount so much. Integrity was the question? What did he sell finally to the customer? He sold his brand as a discount brand that can be bought only during the discount sales. There is a very thin line between being perceived as value for money and being perceived as cheap. When you lack a strategy, engage in tactical decisions to support a particular momentum, you will end up impacting your company, revenues and brand value. This will hurt a lot more than missing out on a few millions in revenue in the short term.
Do assess your company objectively, if possible, get an external consultant to evaluate your company and analyse “what are you selling to your customer” Depending on your approach to market your entire ecosystem would carry the same message. Very quickly you could derail your company’s positioning and would take huge efforts, investments and resources to get it back on track.
A consistent messaging will first get your employees understand the values that you believe in. When that gets imprinted into them, it will translate to everyone that they interact with. So right from your HR, marketing, sales, production, procurement, customer service, the goals, KRA’s, KPI’s value systems would be aligned towards building your brand, the market positioning and have loyal customers who not only endorse you but also evangelize you.
So what would do you want to sell to your customer?
Do write to me at sudarsan@edenem.in if you have questions / feedback / clarifications around this.
