The Sprint Experience

I noticed something the other day while I made my way through the minefields that can be my social media feeds.

Sprint Business was making a big push to get people signed up. Certainly not totally out of the ordinary, as like most businesses they succeed by bringing in new customers. What was interesting was the backlash that each of these ads had from the public. 

Each ad that I saw regardless of the platform had roughly about 30-50 comments ranging from Sprint is Shit to Sprint is Utter Shit.

Whoever was manning the fort for these posts had a hell of a job that day and was feverously trying to respond to every complaint and attack that was lobbed their way. 

This ad confirmed something that I have been telling my clients for a long time. People buy experiences, they don't buy products or services.

While Sprint was trying to sell wireless service at a lower price than Verizon and AT&T they failed to acknowledge that they missed the mark with providing a satisfying experience.

If your company's value prop is that it will save you time and/or money, you are going to have a tough time selling it. Frankly, if people were worried about saving time and money, nobody would ever buy an iPhone.

Just watch in the upcoming weeks, people will sleep outside an Apple store and drop close to $1k for essentially the same device they had in their pocket, to begin with. 

Apple sells products that are in many cases already technologically behind the curve.

Sprint sells a service on the basis they offer a lower price than the competition.

One company has enough money to buy Poland, the other is grasping at straws.

The fundamental difference is that one is focusing on selling an experience that people want to be among to first to have, the other is trying to save you money.