Your Company's Process is the Product

You're a liar.

So are your parents, your friends, your coworkers.

We lie to ourselves because we frame a story about the way we see the world.

Then, we seek ways to justify this lie to fit our worldview.

The 2016 election is a great example of that.

We all watched the same debates, yet we had wildly different interpretations of it.

Even data, something that is supposed to be objective, is in fact quite subjective.

The researchers that chose the metrics, interpreted the data and made conclusions about what it means was all subjectively driven.

We lie to ourselves ahead of time by telling ourselves a story about a worldview we have yet to encounter.

Lying into the Future

People make decisions both big and small based on one simple thing; the lie we tell ourselves about what we're about to do. 

A surgeon who denounces the value of a new technology after an error occurs during surgery decided weeks and months before that operation that the robot is to blame for the error.

A patient who decided to sue this physician for that error decided that they would sue the physician well before the operation was even scheduled, even if the error had nothing to do with the outcome of the procedure.

Good outcomes are remembered because they support the customer's worldview.

Bad outcomes are forgotten as just random events.

This is all because of the story we tell ourselves about the world we see before we see it.

When you exceed customers' expectations, then they tell a story to themselves about you. 

It's about the Process, not the Product

Art Basel is an international art fair with three shows staged annually in Basel, Switzerland; Miami Beach, Florida; and Hong Kong.

It draws a huge crowd and often has art selling for over $1M.

When people pay 10x more for art at Art Basel versus just buying the same piece in private, they're not buying the product;

They're buying the process. 

Breaking a process will help change a person's worldview.

Email made history by breaking the communication process of fax/mail.

In the world of medical devices, we see this as workflow.

WorkFlow = CashFlow

When we look at Intuitive Surgical's history, it seems that through marketing and ingenious sales strategy that the company got traction.

However, peeling layers back we find that it was disrupting a workflow that allowed Intuitive Surgical to become "INTUITIVE SURGICAL".

Focusing on radical prostatectomy, Intuitive not only innovated the approach but completely reversed and disrupted the workflow.

That involved changing the way the procedure started, progressed, and ended.

The steps of the process were changed, and the workflow became the product.

Surgeons and hospitals didn't buy a robot. They bought the process and effect of the process that the robot provided.

The process has now become a product, and Intuitive crossed the chasm into the mainstream surgical market.

Starbucks did this in its own way. Ever notice how the process has its own language, flow, and result every time you order?

So why is that in the Coke vs. Pepsi experiment, people somehow made the wrong choice and thought they were drinking one soda when in reality they weren't?

We don't drink the coke in the can; We drink the can.

We tell ourselves a story. 

Process the Story

The best marketers are not scientists but artists.

They understand people buy for an emotional want and not because it fills a simple need.

For me, I feel that the happy medium is to think like a scientist and act like an artist.

If this post should do anything, it should be to persuade you to be less rational.

Stop looking for the formula that will convert people. 

Start looking for the story that will resonate with someone.

That means understanding the worldview of a prospect, and dissecting how each part of your product, service, and company will tell a story to each potential person.

Then, you frame your story in terms of that worldview.

Don't worry, people of similar worldviews do tend to flock together, and a successful marketeer can find undiscovered flocks and frame a story in the words, images, and interactions that reinforce these people's biases.

The surgeon who works in academia will have a different worldview of a robot that touts speed versus a private practice surgeon who is interested in innovating to reduce costs and maximize outcomes.

A great story is trusted, is subtle, happens fast, and often appeals to our senses.

Great stories don't contradict themselves, and they match our worldview by agreeing with what we already believe. 

For medical device marketers, it can start with a process and the story we tell about that process which helps our customers tell themselves a lie about a worldview they've already had.

They just didn't know it yet.

Omar M. Khateeb is medical device marketer with a background in science and medicine with a focus on surgical robotics.

He currently serves as Marketing Manager for Product and Platform Technologies at Restoration Robotics.

His interests reside in sales psychology, neuromarketing, and self-development practices.

Check out his virtual bookshelf here to find your next great read, and connect with him on LinkedIn, Twitter, or SnapChat.