Please Stop – You’re Building Your Company’s Foundation Wrong
- Mar 14, 2024
- 5 min read
Written by: Joseph Rockey, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
“You're Doing It Wrong” can be one of the harshest statements you can hear. I remember when I was first dating my now wife, we were decorating Christmas trees inside of a church. I was volunteering to put decorations up and I heard her in a sing-songy voice say, “you're doing it wrong.” Man, did I get upset, I almost broke up with her that day. Well, fast-forward to now, we've been married for many years and have a son. But that moment when you get told “you're doing it wrong” can be so upsetting.
Unfortunately I have to tell a great deal of businesses out there that ‘you are doing it wrong.’ I hope that you don't emotionally shut down after feeling that initial burst of anger. Because the bottom line is that the way the vast majority of us are taught to look for prospects is completely wrong and contrary to building a successful relationship with our clients.
If we think about what it is that our product actually solves, very rarely does it have anything to do with what a person looks, tastes, or smells like, let alone what they think or believe. A prospect’s politics or religion is irrelevant to virtually all of our products. Yet, if you go to nearly any MBA or coaching course, you are going to see that these are the first things asked for. What are the demographics of your ideal target client? How much money do they make? What is their income level? Where do they live? What is their education level?
I have to tell you, if you believe that demographic data is important, you are doing it wrong.
If you believe that your product can only serve this group, that race, or the educated elite, well, then either one of two things are true. Either A, you have a very limited belief in what your product can solve, or B your product doesn't actually solve anything and you need to force people to be upset to support you: IE politicians.
Now let's talk about how to do it right. It all starts with what is the problem that we solve. And then we're going to dive this deeper. So many of us are focusing on benefits and features, features and benefits of our products, but that's not what makes successful sales. That's not what makes you the elite of your industry.
What makes you elite is feeling a presence, a power, a connection. Not the color of your product, its shape or even its taste. The fact that you have pink on your website or socials, or whatever the flavor of the week is irrelevant.
If you want to truly know what you're solving, it's the feelings in the ocean of your client. Each person has depth and moving parts of desires and aspirations, fears and anxieties all creating cross currents within our souls, deep within us. If you can't place your product inside your client's ocean, you're just a commodity. And it doesn't matter what your price tag is, or how prestigious you believe your product is, it's just a commodity.
When you look at some of the best branding in the economy, they have figured this fact out; I'm going provide an example from a commoditized industry - candy bars. At the end of the day, there's not really that much difference between any candy bar out there. It's a bunch of sugar or carbs that makes you feel happy in a split moment. The buyer will get a sugar high. Little kids will run around, scream, and then crash. Basically all candy bars are the same.
Sure, different companies might be using different ingredients, chocolate, caramel, or peanuts, but at the end of the day, a candy bar is just a bunch of sugar and carbs that any nutritionist would say is unhealthy for you. But there are some brands that sell like wildfire on a dry mountain that just attract and connect with people. And then there are some brands that don't really stick around on the shelves and seem like they've never reappeared.
They're just gone. Why is that?
Well, we've already identified there's no real intrinsic difference between various candy bars. But if you connect with your prospect's soul you are no longer a commodity. For instance, Snickers is the world's best-selling candy bars. Yet when market research is done, most consumers do not rank Snickers in the top 3 of their favorite tasting candy bars.
So if product quality is not what makes them sell like crazy, what does?
Let’s look at how Snickers are advertised. Essentially their ad campaign is, ‘everyone else thinks you're acting incorrectly. You're not acting like yourself. You're not being pleasant. Eat Snickers, get back to normal, become a good person again.’ That in and of itself is great relationship building, but the greatness of the ads didn't stop there. Snickers took their connection capacity to the next level with their advertising by giving the product (the solution) to someone else who's struggling.
Now the majority of us out there buying candy bars are going to consume it ourselves. So why does this twist of handing it to someone else, giving the solution, resonate? Because as an innate fact of human beings, we all want to help other people. We also all have that fear of being a social problem. Who wants to be the kid that's getting yelled at because you're doing it wrong? Snickers can help, Snickers solves that problem.
Snickers isn't selling on the fact that they have milk chocolate and caramel. They don't care about that because the client doesn’t. They solve your problem that you're not actually acting right. That's a wildly, wildly different approach than features and benefits - milk chocolate, caramel, nougat, and peanuts. Remember in terms of benefits and features, Snickers are not a top 3 product.
But why are they the best selling candy bar in the world? Because in the client’s ocean of emotions they crave to fit in the group, be in a social norm, be desirable. “You're not yourself, have a Snickers.”
What does your product do to connect with someone's soul? That is what is answered when the question is asked, “What is it that we solve?” The fact is it doesn't even matter how you solve the problem, as long as you solve it. No one ever asks Snickers,” How do you actually make one? I'm not going to eat this unless I know.” People are not built that way.
What are you doing in the ocean of your clients emotions? How are you connecting and resonating with them? This is the first step of the sales journey and arguably it is the number one reason for retention.
Master the fundamentals. Who is my ideal client? What problem do we solve?
Sales will heal the world.
Joseph Rockey, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Joseph Rockey Jr is a serial business creator, world class consultant, international best-selling author, and hosts a TV Show that airs in 55 million households. Elite Business Conversations, Joe’s consulting firm, specializes in honoring the sacrifices of business owners by keeping the business running, even if it is no longer wanted. His international best-selling book "Casino Sales Master: Proven System to Beat the Odds in Sales and Life" and accompanying coaching course are teaching businesses worldwide to sell in the correct way. By bringing relationships as an integral portion of the sales system, Joe’s clients’ cut through the omnipresent residue of the 1960’s Sales Method to heal the world.
