Simon’s business was founded four years ago to focus on an industry he knew well having worked in it for more than a decade. As an IT professional, he thought he understood their challenges through his experiences and the work he did every day. His business exposure was limited to others in IT, and he rarely met in person with customers during his decade in his industry. In starting his business, a marketing acquaintance said to him, “be aware of putting band-aids on broken bones”.
Simon had no idea what marketing people did and the band-aid and broken bones metaphor meant nothing to him.
When he started his company, he assembled a team of programmers and coders who could help him create something he thought everyone in his industry needed. These computer geniuses understood code and programming and were skilled at their work. Together they could solve the problems of an industry with an elegant solution using the latest software programming technology.
A field of dreams inspired the operating hypothesis for his company – if he built it, they would come. Why wouldn’t everyone be knocking at his door to use what he created?
Sadly, as his business was in the emergency room, that’s when he reached for help from a marketing professional. His cash burn was painful and he didn’t know what to do.
Marketing Emergency
“I don’t understand why nobody wants to sign up for our subscription to use our technology,” Simon told me in a recent call. We have everything anyone could need to solve their problems, and we charge a reasonable price. Where are the customers?
As I pulled out my marketing doctor’s bag, I ask one straightforward question to help diagnose the problem.
Me: “Simon, tell me how many people in your industry you interviewed before you began building your solution?”
Simon: “Zero. We didn’t need to ask anyone’s opinion because we knew what they needed. Remember, I worked in this industry for ten years”.
Understand What Hurts, First
If you are building a solution without investing time in understanding your potential customers, you are asking for trouble. A marketer’s approach to problem-solving begins with understanding the pain. An operations-oriented approach is to create a solution for that pain.
When you begin with the solution, before you understand the pain, it is like putting a Band-Aid on a broken bone. It might look nice, but it won’t fix the problem. Sadly, Simon’s business failed because he never did the hard work of understanding what pain his potential clients were suffering. He went right into building something he thought they needed.
Building a solution is tactical. Understanding pain is strategic. If you don’t know the difference, your business may end up in intensive care, when it is too late to resuscitate your company.
Strategy first.
You can set up a time to chat with me about your marketing challenges using my calendar. Email me jeffslater@themarketingsage.com Call me. 919 720 0995. Visit my website at www.themarketingsage.com The conversation is free, and we can explore working together.
Photo by Harlie Raethel on Unsplash
