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To Make More Sales: Solve A Big Problem
I don’t know who first said, “Go big or go home.” I’ve been thinking about that a lot lately. I’m often surprised by how small some business executives think about their business and their products or services. Rather than addressing the big problems that their customers and clients face, they waste their time trying to solve the small problems.
The result of this is a failure to stand out or justify the value that a seller brings to the table.
One of the net results of the deep recession and recovery cycle we are going though (yes, we are going through a recovery cycle) is that discretionary budgets have been virtually eliminated. Today, as a seller, you are either indispensable or your are a commodity. If you’re a commodity your business model better focus on delivering your products and services faster, better and cheaper than your competition.
The only long-term strategy to support strong, growing margins is to be indispensable. And the only way to be indispensable is to solve big problems.
This small problem trap is so unfortunate, because most companies are 80% of the way to addressing big problems. For some reason, most businesses fail to go the last 10 – 20% to be able to address the big problems. They seem afraid to dig deeper and understand their customers at a deeper level. They wait for customers to talk about their problems, rather than provoking them. It seems as though business executives are simply afraid to make the big promise – and then work like hell to deliver.
Going forward, it’s the companies that take that last step (or two) and position themselves to the big problems that will earn the lions share of profit. Be one of them.
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I could not agree more.
One challenge I see on a regular basis is helping with the how to approach that elusive final percentage. The key to this is to develop an innovative mindset, I have found. It is also about isolating what is needed and providing solutions in a new and novel way.
Consumer demand is not what people think. People choose from the options available. Demand will shift according to what is available. As innovation is introduced and is made available people will again choose from what is available.
Linda,
Thank you for the comment. You nailed it – people don’t really know what they want, until what they want exists. The key to successful innovation is knowing your customer at such a deep level you know what they want before they do.
All the best,
Doug