November 29, 2018
Follow-up re: tuba
Thanks to everyone who replied to yesterday’s message (subject: Where do I put the tuba?)
Several people brought up questions that centered around products and productized services. I’ll summarize them all like so:
Since my product/productized service is pre-defined and therefore isn’t customized on a per client basis, isn’t that inherently solution-first?
Well... maybe, maybe not. It’s not a question of customization. It’s a question of empathy.
I would call an offering solution-first if:
- You conceived of it in a vacuum without input from your ideal buyers
- You are planning to market it on its features instead of benefits
- You are planning to try to convince anyone and everyone to buy it
On the other hand, I would NOT call an offering solution-first if:
- You know who your ideal buyers are and have had loads of conversations with them
- You know what problems your offering will solve for them and how they articulate those problems in their own words
- You aren’t going to try to convince non-ideal buyers who don’t need your offering that they actually do need to buy it
In the Subaru Outback example from yesterday, there are at least three places where solution first thinking can creep in:
- Design
- Marketing
- Sales
Even if the car was designed a team who took a customer-centric (i.e., not solution-first) approach, the sales team could still try to sell the car to a marching band director (i.e., solution-first).
In a big organization, you would want to align all the departments on a customer-centric (i.e., problem-first) approach.
If you are a soloist or a small shop, you won’t have a problem with cross-departmental alignment.
However, you still could lose your way after a customer-centric design phase and slip into solution-first marketing and/or sales if you get desperate for cash flow or otherwise have some crisis of faith.
Here’s the thing...
At every stage (e.g., design, marketing, sales), always be thinking of the customer first. Constantly be asking yourself:
“How will this make my customer happier?”
Yours,
—J