GlobalBX

If you were in the market for a music CD you really like and want, which is the most important element you will look forward to: paying for the CD or playing the CD? It’s a simple question and the answer of course is even easier: playing and enjoying the CD is what matters most. If the answer is so obvious, why is it that the great majority of business people still think that customers and prospects are mostly interested in the paying factor? My studies show that too many managers and sales people have little or no appreciation for the ‘playing’ side of business transactions…meaning ‘that side where the customer derives longer-term enjoyment, pleasure and success’ from the product or service they bought, compared to the short-term [usual] displeasure of making purchases.’

If you sell to the business community, think of your customers and prospects as being both ‘business payers’ and ‘business players’ – in the sense that the paying function involves access and the playing role concerns success. With this thought in mind, are you selling product access or product success? Again, in my view, based on many years of working with countless numbers of companies across a wide range of industries, most companies and sales people focus on the access factor…and so inevitably there is pressure on ‘price’ and other paying related issues. Here are some examples of the focus on ‘paying’:

• Most people that sell home or commercial insurance are worried to death about being price competitive (the access factor)…rather than helping the vast majority of customers to reverse their current, dangerous position of not having anywhere near the insurance cover they really need (the success factor)
• Most financial planners sell super and investment solutions that match what customers can ‘afford’ (the access factor)…rather than working with customers to ‘manage’ the wealth development they really need (the success factor)
• Most suppliers that sell to any form of re-seller base, engage in trying to sell their product into their customers’ businesses, with endless arguments about margins and trading terms (the access factor)…rather than showing how to sell their products out of the re-sellers businesses (the success factor)
• Most financial services organizations insist on selling home loans, personal loans and other services based on what customers say they want, such as the best borrowing rates, etc. (the access factor)…rather than leading customers to arrange and manage their current and future financial situations with better ideas (the success factor)
• Most retailers serve customers in a friendly manner (the access factor)…rather than starting with service and then finding needs and offering recommendations to achieve the best possible results (the success factor)

I wrote recently about our dual business roles of ‘servant & master’, with the servant scenario relating to our ability to ‘attend to customers’…and the master task concerning our ability to ‘achieve for customers’. So I am not downgrading the servant role, I am simply offering a reminder that this part of our job only deals with the paying factor, not the playing factor. If we return briefly to the topic of buying CDs, the paying factor is now so easy we can download what we want, anytime, with great ease…which raises the question: ‘what will happen to traditional music stores if they continue to focus on music lovers as just being payers?’

If you focus on the payer and therefore ignore the player, it is almost certain that you will get hammered from cheaper or more convenient competitors…to the point where your business will be controlled and forced backwards by the power of buyers. Conversely, if you keep make paying easier but focus on delivering pleasure to players, the players in turn will make you very successful!