Three Ideas to Upgrade How Your Customers See You
IBM was the undeniable leader in computing in 1984 having created the iconic PC. Because IBM didn’t try to do everything on its own, it was successful. Unlike Apple, which created every component of hardware and software for their computers, IBM bought hardware from smaller producers and supplied its computers with Microsoft Windows already installed.
Unfortunately, the market quickly became saturated with “PC clones,” all of which were made with less expensive parts and ran identical versions of Windows. Because IBM was big, slow, and not too innovative, its prices were undercut by competitors. IBM recorded the largest loss (at the time) in corporate America history in 1993, totaling $8 billion.
The corporation was faced with a huge decision: innovate or perish. They made the bold move to give up producing and selling low-margin PCs, computer chips, printers, and other hardware, which was the foundation of its business model. IBM shifted its focus to giving businesses access to IT know-how and computing services. Today, business schools use IBM as a case study on how to reinvent and evolve in the information era. More than that, however, IBM changed the way consumers perceived them in the tech industry.
Getting Lost in the People Pile
Too many of us run businesses that have gotten lost in the “people pile.” We observe what’s going on in our industry and only imitate others. We’re forced to say, “me too,” not “me first.”
I offer three steps I’ve taken that helped our organization, Growing Leaders, climb out of the pile and change how our industry and consumers see us.
Three Ideas to Upgrade How Customers See You
1️⃣ Redefine what you offer.
Henry Ford wisely concluded, “The biggest problem with my customers is they can only extrapolate the present. If I had asked my customers what they wanted from Ford Motor Company, they would have said a faster horse.” What Henry Ford did was redefine the transportation industry. In fact, the original name people commonly called his vehicles was a “horseless carriage.” Using terms they understood, Ford gained respect by giving the average American access to an automobile. Ford wasn’t the first innovator to create a car, but his assembly line enabled Ford to build them so fast and inexpensively that almost anyone could afford them. Steve Jobs and Apple weren’t the first people to offer a smartphone. They redefined communication and information for the average consumer with a beautiful and simple device anyone could navigate and had more features than anyone imagined. Elon Musk wasn’t the first person to develop an electric car, but his Tesla redefined what people expect from them, and now others are attempting to emulate him. At Growing Leaders, we focus on leader development for the emerging generation. After six years, we expanded to target every young team member, not just those in leadership roles. Sales took off.
My question for you:
How could you tweak your offering and marketing to enable consumers to see you in a completely different way?
2️⃣ Be distinct, not just different.
Employers recognize the key to being a market leader is differentiation. You must be different from your competitors and climb out of the “people pile.” However, there’s an upgrade leaders must make to permanently separate themselves further: to be an organization people perceive as distinct, not merely different. For example, when a retailer is seen as different, others notice and can copy them. Soon, everyone looks alike again. When a retailer is distinct, they’re not only different but so unique that others can’t copy them. On a small scale, we did this when I released Habitudes—Images That Form Leadership Habits and Attitudes®. The principles are timeless, but the way we teach them is timely and image-rich. We put leadership development on ICE: Images, Conversations and Experiences. Today, 2.8 million young leaders have experienced them. Other companies can and will use metaphors or illustrations, but we’ve based each principle on a visual. Pictures beat lectures any day. They are simple, they are sticky, they are scalable.
My question for you:
What could you offer that no one else does?
3️⃣ When you feel too emotional.
Too often, salespeople talk about the features of their products or services. Many of them do a “feature dump,” waxing eloquent on all the great aspects of their products. Because most people are shopping for results, not features, great leaders focus on the outcomes their product will help customers enjoy, not the inputs their company made to improve the offering.
When it comes to your products and services, the best companies set a new level of expectation from their customers. Their offerings are so good that people learn to think bigger and expect more. Years ago, when Steve Jobs was asked what kind of market research Apple did before releasing a product, he replied that they did none. When asked why, he famously replied, “People don’t know what they want until you show it to them. That’s why I never do market research. Our task is to read things that are not yet on the page.” Both Henry Ford and Steve Jobs became notorious for dismissing customer feedback as a source of innovation.
My question for you:
What results do your services produce for customers? How can you focus on them?
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