Customers Don’t Want Your Product 🤯
Your product is only a means to an end. Your customer wants the end result that your product will provide.
Before you can sell them a product you need to find out what your customer wants. Then you can provide them the product or service that will help them get to that end result.
It’s not always easy to figure out what customers actually want. Below is a categorization of what people generally want. I included examples further below with some examples for different types of businesses. Remember, it’s important to speak the language of your customer. Make it simple and clear. Avoid talking about features and focus on benefits they will experience instead.
Stand Out from The Competition
The best way to stand out from your competition and help your customer find you is to talk about what they want. Mention the problem they want solved and do it in a clear and simple way to leave your competitors in the dust 💨.
Your customer wants something and there’s a problem standing in the way. Once you can state what your customer wants, then you can focus on the problem that’s in the way of them getting the product and experiencing what they want. The problem is overcome with a simple 3-4 step plan on getting them the product.
Your Customer Wants One of These 4 Things
- Save something
- Gain something
- Be something
- Do something
After you find out what your customer wants, then start clarifying the how.
What your customer wants is often 1-2 steps removed from the product or service you offer.
For example, our customers want to grow their business but the problem is their current website is slow and confusing. That’s the problem. They don’t want a new website. A new website is a means to an end.
Start with clarifying what your customers want and then get to the problem they face.
Save Something
Save Money
- So they can spend it on something else
- Save it for a future need
- Save for more comfortable retirement
Save Time
- Allows for spending time on more important things like family, friends, or hobbies
Gain Something
Love or Connection
- Become better parents
Respect or Influence
- Become recognized as an expert or authority in a certain field
- Become more influential in your group
- Become known
Increase Enjoyment
- Food
- Drink
- Entertainment
- Hobbies
Skills
- Fix things around the house
- Gardening your own vegetables instead of buying at the store
Health or Fitness
- Lose weight
- Feel physically better
- Run a marathon
Other Things
- Certainty in their decision and the future
- Variety in their experiences and adventures
- Influence
- Honor or praise
- Power
Be Something
- Part of a loyal tribe or community
- Significant in society
- Change the world
- The best at their craft
- No longer alone
- Common interests
- Someone with a mission or purpose (meaning)
- The chief desire of man is having meaning (according to Viktor Frankl)
- Invite people to participate in something greater than themselves
