Signs of Slogging: Are You A Nice-to-Have? (7/100)

Sooo you go through the painful slog to get your 'stuff' to a point that you're excited to show others, whether your stuff is a software demo, content or even your art. Then you show someone, and it's gratifying that they get excited! "This is so cool!" Yet - they don't call you back. They don't buy. They just... fade away. Though they meant what they said at the time - they just don't NEED your stuff. Turns out, you were a nice-to-have - at least to that one person. What's the difference, and how do you find customers that need you?

- - - - -

ARE YOU A NICE-TO-HAVE?

Do you believe your intended buyers need what you’re offering? Or are you a nice-to-have? One clear sign that you’re a nice-to-have: Everyone you show your product to says “cool!” but no one buys.

Consumers don’t buy what they need; they buy what they want. How much do consumers spend on Porsches and ice cream compared to broccoli and psychotherapy?

But businesses don’t buy nice-to-haves. For example:

• Marketers want a beautiful website but they need a website that converts visitors to outcomes such as leads or purchases.
• CEOs want happy employees, but they need people to show up and do their jobs, whether for products to be released on time or to deal with growing cashflow. [Post-pandemic note... this is changing. Every year, happy employees will become more of a 'need-to-have' now that anyone can try to poach your people, often with higher paychecks. You don't want to rely solely on money to keep people loyal.]
• VPs of Sales - swamped with neat or valuable sales tools - want increased sales productivity but they buy the few, most important tools that they believe will the most useful, ones that increase leads, accurate reporting tools, and (sometimes) training. Sales execs and AEs are all suffering from "app fatigue"... the cost of juggling too many can outweigh the benefits of each one.
• Venture capitalists want to invest in honorable founders but they (believe they) need to generate above-average returns, which may or may not come from companies with honorable founders.

It takes a lot of energy to buy and use something new, so if you’re a nice-to-have, it won’t stick. Nice-to-haves fall to the bottom of the “must-do” list.

If the buyer doesn’t need your solution, they won’t be motivated to go through all the work to convince their people, justify the purchase, roll it out, and get people to use it.

What problem is painful enough that a team of people will spend both their money and time to fix it?

• If you are solving a need, how can you describe what you do differently, so prospects also see it that way?
• What differentiates the customers who need you from the ones who don’t?
• Where can you create the most financial value?
• Where can you get permission to create case studies or get references? (With some types of markets or customers these are almost impossible to get.)
• How can you “sell money”?
• How can you sell “things”?

- - - - -

“Sell money” means proving to customers that your product will help them make more money, spend less of it, reduce the risk of losing it, or stay compliant (avoiding fines and legal risk). Demonstrate how spending money with you will make them more money.

Make money by proving to customers that your product will help them make more money, spend less of it, reduce the risk of losing it, or stay compliant.

If you say you’ll “increase revenue” or “decrease costs,” you sound just like everyone else. What’s equivalent to money in their mind leads? Close rates? Social activity? Collections?

Do you help executives increase employee engagement or fulfillment? Although we 'know' inherently that engaged employees and fulfillment are important, it's sooo easy to lose sight of that with balls getting dropped. How do you prove to customers that you can help them make money with better employee relations, or with better resources and tools for their employees? How can you make the case that your product, service or idea is needed? How can you tie it to their current feelings, pains and metrics?

- - - - -

Observations: In keynotes, I tell people 'if you can only take one simple Nail A Niche idea here to start with, it's discerning the difference between to whom you're a nice-to-have, vs to who you are a need-to-have. You're not a nice-to-have - you're a nice-to-have to some people. You're a need to others. What is it about the customers who jumped to buy, spent the most, and upgraded - and how are they different from the customers who struggled to decide, didn't succeed or churned?

- - - - -

NEXT WEEK: What ACME Learned from Failing at Outbound Lead Generation (8/100)

PRIOR POST:??Assume You Are Marketing to Fourth Graders (6/100)