You Can’t Force A Customer to Buy What They Don’t Want
| by Dan Davison | ||||
Company A’s corporate customers thought they were buying the time of skilled installers and customer service troubleshooters on demand. In an effort to be different from its competitors who also sold skilled labor hours, Company A offered additional benefits that its skilled workers brought to the table such as cross-training and process improvement.
At first, “differentiating” the marketing message seemed like a good idea. Essentially, Company A was offering higher levels of service that it said would help customers improve operations and save money. But when interviewed, customers didn’t seem to get it. They resisted the idea that contract hires were in a position to influence substantial changes in business practices within their companies. Instead customers said they would rather pay less and get just the services they valued.
But customers did say that Company A provided rapid availability of highly skilled, highly specialized technicians. And they would even pay a little more for what they perceived as consistent well-managed delivery of the right skills at the right time.
But Company A was unwilling to change its story. Rather it persisted in a story that was out of sync with the voice of their customer. Company A failed to separate its aspirations for the future with the current perceptions of its paying customers. But you can only ignore the voice of the customer for a time.
When the recession hit a few months later and corporations sought to cut expenses, services they did not immediately value were hard to justify, and easy targets. As a result, Company A lost several customers and a double-digit percent of its revenue.
Tomorrow, read about Company B. Because sometimes, listening means changing your story.
Categories:
Sales and Marketing • Strategy
Tags:
customer • quality management • Sales and Marketing • value proposition • voice of the customer
Bizmanualz has been at the forefront of deploying business best practices since 1995 delivering Policies, Procedures and Forms; quality systems implementation; and strategic business process improvement to help business owners achieve the growth and expansion they envision.
Learn more about Bizmanualz solutions:
Originally published in 2009 by Bizmanualz, Inc. under the title You Can’t Force A Customer to Buy What They Don’t Want. All rights reserved. Reproduction permitted with attribution only. www.bizmanualz.com
Leave Your Comment
