Perceived Needs
I just finished reading “The E-Myth Revisited” by Michael Gerber. I should have read this book at least 5 years ago. Who knew that there was so much that went into baking pies? While my dreams of one day opening up a café were thoroughly crushed, I’m more inspired than ever to work on H?lmetrics, while supporting my team who work diligently in our business every day doing incredible things. For the majority of the book, I followed along with a hearty, “Amen”. There were lots of things that brought back painful memories from previous businesses where I had learned the hard way and thought, “If only I had read this book back then.”
It wasn’t until near the end of the book when Michael starts talking about Sales and Marketing that my jaw hit the floor. I had never quite connected the dots before between a customer’s needs and a customer’s perceived needs. The light bulb went on in a big way.
One of the hardest truths that I’ve had to accept during my time building H?lmetrics is that there are customers that need our product, and customers who want our product, and those two people are never the same. When I started H?lmetrics I genuinely wanted the serve those who work in careers, like I was, that had statistically higher rates of burnout. Doctors, nurses, police officers, paramedics, youth workers, teachers, military personnel, veterans. Being the son, brother and nephew of a long line of teachers in my family I was especially keen to provide a mental health and safety tool to the countless numbers of teachers who suffer burnout every year—a profession with a 30% attrition rate within the first 5 years of a new teachers career. The Saskatchewan Teachers Federation, my home province, spends more money through its benefits plan on medication for anxiety and high blood pressure than any other line item, according to the CBC. And yet every single profession that I listed above is notoriously difficult to sell to, and we were no exception. I spent hundreds of hours and put thousands of miles on my car in the early days trying to convince these groups that H?lmetrics would help them build healthy, life-giving places to work for their people. Our tagline back then was, “The Self-Care Tool for People who Work with People.” No sale. They had the need. They did not have the perceived need. And that made all the difference. (This is a generalization, and I don’t believe this is true of every person in these professions.)
What made the difference for us was a shift when we realized that leaders in the for-profit world wanted our product. And yet, even still, it wasn’t the ones with poor culture, or high turnover, or high disability claims. It was the companies that had a great culture and were being recognized for being great places to work. They had high morale and high GlassDoor ratings. They invested in their people and were rewarded with low turnover, high engagement and virtually no disability claims. They were the companies that cared about their people, and subsequently had a perceived need for a tool that could help them even more to build a healthy life-giving place to work.
And I didn’t quite get it until reading it in The E-myth Revisited. A must-read for any business owner or entrepreneur. I’d love to hear your thoughts on the book if you’ve read it or hear your journey towards customer traction.