Home: Message List - What are you selling?

Re: What are you selling?

Iwrite — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 16:08:30 GMT

Yes and no.

It starts with the USP but expands beyond that when you start understanding how the customer perceives what you are offering. It is about establishing a two way communication with customers you can tell them what your USP is, and they tell you what it means to them.

If we listen to them, we realized that there is a message or story that speaks to customers and not at them. This message makes selling easier, and more profitable - you can better target your marketing, increase response (sells), and reduce waste of budget. I have seen the conversation become so informative that the customers have helped to improve the product.

Re: What are you selling?

Peter63 — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 13:25:15 GMT

It surely boils down to one thing; the Unique Selling Point (USP), does it not...? What's better about my product than my competitors'

P

Re: What are you selling?

Bemore — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 04:10:52 GMT

A very interesting exercise I have done at networking events is to have each participant explain what they do or what their business is as if they were talking to a 5 year old. Try it some time, it is not as easy as most of us think!

I certainly agree with your comments. For the first few years I was in business I thought I sold SIGNS. I have now learned that I sell increased business, more profits, information, more traffic into your business. We tend to approach most calls as problem solving adventures.

Re: What are you selling?

qbooks — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 23:32:31 GMT

Thanks Iwrite. Your post was very insightful. I am the owner of a children's e-bookstore called Qutessy
Books (www.qutessybooks.com) and until now, I was under the impression that I was selling children's short stories when in reality I have been selling 'quality family time' as well as 'moral lessons' and 'encouragement for enthusiastic young readers.' Whether its parents reading our stories to younger readers during bed time or children reading our stories during playtime, the experience is about more than just reading a story. Reading our books increases family time and creates stronger bonds through discussing the lessons in our stories. The things I always thought were just advantages of buying our books are so much more than that. In reality these are our products, so thank you for helping me recognize that we sell more than just 'books.'

Re: What are you selling?

Iwrite — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 17:45:27 GMT

Yes, all the suggestions are great.

The more we understand what we are really offering to customers the more clearly we can communicate how we can meet their needs. First, we need to listen to the client.

Lighthouse, too your point, too many people are trying to close the sale without understanding the customer. I hope this thread help someone.

Thanks all.

Re: What are you selling?

Lighthouse24 — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 17:25:25 GMT

Very valuable second tip MKTG...au! To reinforce your point: I do a session geared toward engineers, accountants, programmers, and self-proclaimed geeks (folks who are stereotypically not thought of as being especially gregarious or people-oriented, but who want to start their own businesses) to teach them the essential rapport-building skills for entrepreneurs (skills that come "naturally" to most individuals in your profession). One of the things I discuss is the importance of "How . . .?" questions.

Ask a typical engineer what a product does and you'll get a five word answer (probably in a tone that suggests anyone with half a brain would already know that). Ask him how a product does something and you'll get a mind-numbing 15 minute abstract. Neither builds rapport. The key (as you pointed out) is to answer questions concisely, yet in a way that entices the other person to keep asking "How . . .?" so a conversation and relationship can develop.

Likewise, entrepreneurs have to learn to recognize their opportunities to ask "How . . .?" ("How are you doing that now? How did you hear about it? How is it working for you? How can I help you?") I see web developers blow it daily because their first conversation with a potential client is "Your site stinks and you should hire me to fix it," instead of asking "How . . .?" questions that allow them and their prospective clients to get to know one another and discover together where improvements might be made.

Again, excellent tip! Thanks.

Re: What are you selling?

MKTG.com.au — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 10:07:18 GMT

You are so right about this one. A business development friend of mine who has been in the working world 20 years longer than me and is very wise helped me out with a couple of tips the other day which are related to this topic.

Firstly (and ok this is obvious but for those who havent ever done sales before it helps), never feel like you are trying to sell something to anyone - always educate them about what you are offering (applies to everything), think of it as giving some useful info.

Secondly, when someone asks you what you do, dont just say (in my case) 'I run my own marketing, branding, pr and online services company' (apparently that is very dull and not overly engaging) but instead say (as I do now) 'I help my clients succeed and grow their companies with amazing marketing strategies' and funnily enough more people are asking me exactly how I do that and I am only too happy to consult them.

Thanks for sharing such a beneficial experience.

Re: What are you selling?

MnlyTechnlgy — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 15:10:28 GMT

Iwrite - I can completely understand and sympathize with that. I do the same thing. The post, journalistic or thought provoking as it may have been, deserved a compliment, so there ya go! Not to mention the fact that you got me thinking ...

Re: What are you selling?

Iwrite — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 15:05:31 GMT

MnlyTechnlgy,

Thanks, but this post is really me trying to talk to myself.

I struggle with this everyday. I get so focused on creating an ad of some type that I loss track of the fact that I am really providiing solutions and knowledge. I am trying to figure out how to keep that front of mind as I am caught up in the daily grind.

It helps to say it out loud sometimes.

Re: What are you selling?

MnlyTechnlgy — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 14:41:09 GMT

Iwrite - WOW! Pretty powerful "food for thought" post. It truly does get to the heart of why we do what we do. You're right, if you can't explain what it is you do, sell or provide, how can you expect others (your customers) to understand why they need it.

That said, you got me thinking about our own company and how I would describe what it is that we "sell". Mainely Technology is a website development company specializing in small business web development. That's WHO we are. Great! Got that down. Now, WHAT we do is provide knowledge and understanding of services which will help our customers, the small business owner, draw in more business through a professionally developed website. Okay, this sounds pretty good ... or does it. Why did we choose the name "technology" as part of our business name if all we do is develop/design websites? Because every business, big or small, commercial or home-based needs to have a presence on the web in this era of growing technology.

Thanks for making me think more in depth about our business and create (or at least think about) our key selling point.