Why People Don’t Want to Buy Your Products and Services

Nobody wants to buy your products or services or mine; they want to acquire value. Customers measure value by how well a product or service helps them get their functional, emotional, and social jobs done. Products and services are just the tools people “hire” to get their jobs done.

For example, no CEO wants to hire a consultant. Some have had a bad experience and don’t want to get burned again, and I don’t blame them! But many simply don’t understand the role and value that a good consultant can deliver. A good consultant brings unique expertise to the client team to help them accomplish objectives they cannot accomplish otherwise. It’s our responsibility to explain and demonstrate that value.

I have had a number of CEOs ask me, for example, “What do you know about my business that I don’t know?” The answer is, “Probably nothing.” But that’s not the right question, at least not for me and Reveal, because we’re not solution domain experts. We are “customer diagnosticians,” and innovation and growth strategy experts that enable our clients to apply their expertise where it matters most. General Motors hired me without prior experience in automobile manufacturing. Morgan Stanley hired me without prior experience in financial services. Herman Miller hired me without prior experience in furniture design. That’s because they didn’t need another industry expert; they already have plenty of them! What they needed was someone who could help them identify the best opportunities in the market, innovate and grow.

Better questions our clients ask are, “Can this person help me:

• Identify and rank the best opportunities in our market?
• Apply our expertise to the issues we now know our customers care about most?
• Drive revenue growth in a reliable manner?

No CEO wants to hire a consultant, but virtually every CEO wants to get these jobs done. What jobs are your customers trying to get done? How do they measure success? Where do they struggle when executing those jobs?

Answer these questions and turn innovation and growth into a repeatable business process.

(This article appeared in The Business Journals on July 13, 2020)