We need to understand customers’ challenges, and we need to demonstrate that. Only then can we explain how our product meets their needs.
We’ve probably all seen products and services fail to achieve what they should have done. In many cases, let’s admit it, the sales and marketing was at fault. Why was this? I suspect it was because there wasn’t enough imagination or resources to get the customers to connect with the product. They just didn’t see themselves in the story being told.
To achieve this, we need to understand the customers’ needs and challenges, and we need to demonstrate that. What’s their biggest issue? Meeting targets? Cutting costs? Just meeting their own customers’ changing or increasing demands?
Only once we’ve imagined ourselves in their shoes, can we explain how our product or service will meet their needs. There are several techniques to do this, including creating buyer personas and collecting market data. Then it’s a question of storytelling in the appropriate language, and getting that story heard.