Donna
Siegel

Customers Can't Buy If They Don't Understand Your Product

When your company introduces a new type of product, or a familiar class of product with a major new feature, you face a special customer education problem. You know your new product is the best, but your customers may not share that view, because Customers Can't Buy If They Don't Understand Your Product.

Background

A few years ago, major corporations were actively diversifying. Some where acquiring companies, while others were expanding into new product and service areas within their existing structure. And still others where experimenting with a new concept of intrapreneurship. Under this format, they would take talented people within their organizations who came up with good ideas for new products, give these people the resources they needed to develop and market the product, and let these idea people build their own companies, right within the parent company.

One such intrepreneurial product was Thinker. It was a new category of computer software, combining graphics with information. The user could draw or use clip art to create a picture of whatever he was trying to do. Behind each element of the picture were all types of relevant data, like prices and sizes or other types of specifications. The user built a picture using these components, so he could see a plausible configuration or outcome. Then, at a press of a button, he could get a summary of related information, based on the specifics in the drawing. Thinker offered a new capability for manipulating information.

If you're having trouble understanding this product, or imagining how you would use it, you're beginning to get an idea of the Thinker marketing problem.

What Happened In The Early Stages

Thinker was introduced to the marketplace like many other software products - a PR announcement, advertising campaign, and presence at trade shows like Comdex. At trade shows, there were long lines at the booth - people asking many questions about how the software worked, what could be done with it, how this product would integrate with existing sources of information like database and spreadsheet programs. A few software developers offered to be beta testers, adapting Thinker to projects they were already pursuing.

Thinker's development staff and the parent company began to get excited. The early prognosis looked good. With this level of interest, sales would be no problem.

The next effort was a major direct marketing campaign. Large quantities of brochures offering Thinker at introductory prices were sent out, and an 800 line set up to take the orders . . . but almost no calls came. After a month, a second mail campaign was planned, this time backed up with a clever set of ads. Once again, there were very few calls. What happened to all that interest? How come no one was buying?

The Problem

Something was clearly wrong. Somehow Thinker was not connecting with the market. What's more, the parent company was losing patience with the lack of sales. After all, there was already an enormous investment in developing the product as well as the introductory marketing programs. Somehow the Thinker staff had to find out what was preventing people from buying the product . . . and find out fast!

What Was Done To Address The Problem

Thinker staff went back to the beta testers, figuring these were the people who knew the product best. Through detailed surveys, they explored what these developers liked about the product, what they were trying to do with it, and how successful they were in building their specialized applications. The data was perplexing - no major problems showed up. Developers loved the product. They offered some suggestions to make Thinker even better, but these were minor enhancements.

Next the Thinker people turned to the few people who responded to the sales campaign and bought the product. What was happening here? Consistently, people who were initially very excited about Thinker and expressed eagerness to use it, had put it on the shelf, unopened. Had they lost interest? No. They were still looking forward to working with the product, as soon as they got through this set of urgent tasks. All they needed was a little time to play with Thinker and get going. Then all would be well. Only these people never seemed to get past this point, and the product continued to sit on the shelf.

So the Thinker people began to dig further:

• What were they going to use the product for?
• Did they have any trouble understanding the documentation and how to use the product?
• Where was the data going to come from to use in their applications?

Buyers had spent time going through the documentation and left comfortable with it. They were planning to either build their data from scratch or, in most cases, load it from major applications, all of which had been tested by Thinker's development staff.

It was in the area of application use that the problem began to emerge. Buyers consistently expressed uncertainty of exactly what they were going to build with Thinker. They were still convinced this was a wonderful tool, as soon as they figured out what to use it for.

The Solution

A quick meeting of the marketing and development staff was called. What were some of the best applications for Thinker? How was it being used by the beta testers? A list of these uses was made, and the 10 with the widest appeal were selected. And a writer got to work on a set of 10 stories about how Thinker could be used, each story demonstrating its application to a specific business problem in a different type of business environment.

The result was an application guide which described in detail each one of these uses and the steps to build them. Now when people called the 800 line or walked into the Thinker booth at trade shows, the staff could use the application guide to demonstrate some of the uses of the product. Prospects had a better idea of how to use the product. Moreover, they had the steps outlined to build their own first application, which got the product off the shelf and into active use.

Needless to say, sales went up.

Why The Application Guide Worked?

Thinker was running into the problem of many pioneering efforts - an intriguing new product was going nowhere because potential buyers and users didn't know what to do with it. The application guide gave the user some real world, practical ideas of how a business (like their own) could use the product. Furthermore, the guide told them exactly how to get the results they needed, without having to spend time learning the nuances of the product. Even if their business need did not precisely correspond to one of those in the guide, they could readily see how to adapt one of the examples to their unique situation.

Since users could see what the product could be used for and how to do it, it was less intimidated to get started. And once they were using Thinker, it was a short step to finding other uses, which led to repeat sales elsewhere in their company.

How You Can Apply What We Learned To Improve Your Sales

If you have a product that potential buyers are reluctant to use or that is totally new to them, you can improve their willingness to buy by doing the following:

1. Determine some of the ways this product can be used by potential buyers and write up a complete description of the goals, steps and benefits for each use.
2. Add an illustration of the product in use, since most people learn more from pictures than words.
3. Present your product to new buyers and prospects in terms of these applications, focusing on the ones that are closest to their uses.

And even if you have an ordinary, everyday product you can still benefit from this application approach. After all, why do you think that people who sell frozen peas put pictures of a complete meal on their package (usually labeled "serving suggestion")? It isn't because customers don't know what peas are or what they are used for. Rather it's to give potential buyers a chance to visualize a complete picture of the product in use, which the marketers know will increase their sales. 

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Phone: 561-750-9233
E-mail: Donna Siegel

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