What Are You Really Selling?
February 25th, 2008 | Michael Q. Pink
None of us got to where we are without the help of others. One of the people who has contributed to the success we had at Selling Among Wolves in 2007 was David G. Johnson of Epiphany Marketing. His specific area of influence had to do with the growth of our business using the internet. Because his input was valuable to me, I thought his input might be valuable to you as well. With that in mind, I have asked him to contribute the content for the blogs this week. He is limited to just a few blogs this week, so I suggest you don’t miss a one of them.
In my work with clients over the years, one thing I’ve observed is that most marketing mistakes made by businesses both small and large come from a fundamentally poor understanding of the real identity of the business. If you don’t know who you are, how can you properly introduce yourself to your future customers? In truth, how can you have any real clear idea about who your future customers are if you aren’t crystal clear on who you are? It’s an extension of a personal identity crisis that gets carried over into the business world, and it’s much more common than I ever would have imagined had I not observed it first-hand again and again.
To illustrate this phenomenon, I’ll let you in on one of the processes that I take nearly every client through to help them better understand who they are. It’s actually a very simple process, but is typically overlooked. It begins by asking the very simple question: what is your true product or service?
Before you respond with the most obvious answer, let me ask it a different way. What business are you really in?
Most companies (and this is particularly true of small businesses) define themselves too specifically and do not think about the answer behind their answer.
To illustrate this, let’s use a well-known company as an example. Starbucks roasts coffee beans purchased from growers all over the world and sells them primarily by making drinks out of them in their local retail stores. What business is Starbucks in?
a. Coffee
b. Beverages
c. Legal Addictive Stimulants
d. Entertainment
Give it some thought. We’ll pick this thought up tomorrow…
Be sure to watch your inbox for details of an important marketing meeting David and I will be holding very soon!
February 25th, 2008 at 11:32 am
Really good stuff and very enlightening. looking forward to more of this and thank you for sharing.
February 25th, 2008 at 12:06 pm
Hmm…good question! What are you really selling? You think the answer is obvious, but maybe it’s not so apparent as it seems. I am looking forward to more discussion. Thank you!
February 25th, 2008 at 12:10 pm
Interesting question. I look forward to tomorrow’s post.
Feedback for Michael, this could be an interesting addition to your blog. A guest post on a regular basis to help us become more effective in what we do could be interesting. All to often we end up turning to the world for advice on many of these matters. It would be helpful to get the expert advice of godly men and women for many of the challenges we face as small businessmen and women.
February 25th, 2008 at 12:20 pm
This is a key question that Peter Drucker always asked and wrote about.
Entertainment is why they have more ambience than McDonald’s. Legal addictive stimulants is why they can charge more than McDonald’s. Coffee is the answer they might fall back on if the economy softens more.
This thing about knowing who you are is very fundamental. It might be key to why Howard Schultz is back as the CEO at Starbucks.
Its also basic in other ways. I find it an ordeal to write a cover letter for a resume. Should that be an exercise in a high school English class where the English teacher partners with the guidance counselor or youth pastor? If a student can’t write a persuasive cover letter when he or she can write effectively for other purposes, maybe that would be a good time in life to dig in for some answers.
Studies of all kinds of business from small to large show that profit and survival derive from knowing who you are well enough to be unique. The me-too company trails in profitability and is in danger of not surviving when massive change comes along.
February 25th, 2008 at 2:47 pm
Funny - they are definitely in the entertainment/relaxation business - there’s just no other way to explain why people pay 500% or more for a basic commodity! Even when people buy “take out” and bring that cardboard cup into a totally different environment, they still get that relaxing treat feeling from drinking a Startbucks! They great thing is that they were bold enough to ask for it in the beginning, then actually got it, and then found a way to make it the “in” thing to do on a national level! Did they figure out who they were as they went along or did they know right from the beginning?
February 25th, 2008 at 4:36 pm
Mc Donalds’ business is real estate. Selling hamburgers is their methodology. Similiarly, Starbucks business is “entertainment” or as Starbucks calls it - ‘the Starbucks Experience’. Selling coffee/beverages/legal additive stimulents is their methodology. They also play the ‘good that we do’ card to their advantage.
February 26th, 2008 at 9:16 am
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February 26th, 2008 at 10:38 am
Eskor, Jill & Larry - thanks for the positive feedback. I hope you all find the rest of this week equally interesting and enlightening.
Kirk - great feedback. It sounds like you’ve got a good grip on the concept. Based upon your experience writing the resume cover letter, you’ll probably appreciate today’s entry as well. This is one of the fundamental difficulties in marketing — you have to be able to get outside yourself (your business) and get the perspective from a vantage point that you yourself can never reach. It absolutely requires input from the outside. Your point about survival makes the case quite accurately that the identity question impacts a whole lot more than just marketing. In truth, every aspect of a business flows out from that starting point. This week, however, we’re focused on reaching out to customers both present and future. Hope you enjoy the rest of it.
Al - you raise a great question. Sometimes people are able to intuitively create the right combination of factors to produce something. That’s very rare, however. It happens by accident more often than not. I can’t speak to the Starbucks situation with any personal knowledge, so I don’t know how they in particular arrived at such a winning combination. It can be done intentionally, however, by beginning with the end in mind. As with anything, testing is key. Mistakes will be made. Retooling will be required. Even Starbucks is having to adapt to a changing marketplace to due to unrelated factors right now.
As believers, however, we have a tremendous advantage in that we can tap the source of all wisdom. Answers like the ones we need don’t always fall out of the sky easily, but we can certainly receive them from the Holy Spirit with some focused prayer and quiet listening.
JoAnn, you hit on a great point with the “good that we do.” They’ve tapped into a fundamental principle that if you can tie someone’s purchases to a cause or a mission they can believe in, then you fulfill a need for purpose and significance in your customers. In the long run, there must be integrity and a substantive good cause, or else it falls apart or even backfires. Those of us who are principled can find (or probably already have more than we can support) any number of valid causes to tie in to what we do. One caveat: since this has been exploited by unsavory types (and there are those who question the validity and effectiveness of even Starbucks’ fair trade dealings), we have to pay attention to how it gets presented and be willing to allow inspection of our results.
Looking forward to more discussion this week!