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Products Should Thrive On Merit

Products should thrive on merit, not be propped up by sales.

Over the past 20 years, there have been two distinct changes in the world that affect a company’s ability to make money. Your willingness to accept those changes and, in turn, your willingness to respond is critical in determining how successful you will be.

The first big change has to do with control of information. It’s commonly understood in the consumer world that the Internet transferred control of information over to the buyer. Blogs. Reviews. Consumer Groups. Message Boards. Consumers are more informed and, consequently, more in control of the transaction than ever before.

On the business-to-business side of the equation, the change is just as big, though rarely talked about or leveraged properly. In your grandfather’s time, the salesman ruled. Both the customer and the company relied on the salesman to mediate the transaction. He had all the control. Those days are gone.

Again, through technology, neither the customer nor the company providing the service or product are dependent on the salesperson. Information on any product or service is now available online. If your customers love (or hate) you, it’s almost certain one of them is out there on the web telling the world how they feel.

Consequently, marketing has grown (rather than diminished) in importance. But it’s less about controlling the transaction than about ensuring that what customers find when they look for your product or service is favorable.

This leads us to the second big change in the business world, though this has been evolving for many years. Today, a product has to thrive on its merits, rather than be propped up by good sales reps. Because people have greater access to information, they know too much for the sales rep (no matter how good he or she is) to control their decisions.

The expression “He could sell ice to Eskimos,” offers a wonderful demonstration of what went wrong. The phrase celebrates a salesperson’s ability to sell regardless of the idea or value of what is being sold. In fact, it defines the pinnacle of salesmanship as being able to sell what has no value to the purchaser! The focus is all on the salesman. Both company and customer are pawns in this game.

“Trust, but verify,” was a signature phrase of Ronald Reagan—borrowed from a Russian proverb. Today, the customer has the power of verification. One quick search can reveal blogs and white papers, reviews and even third-party testing…verification.

B2B companies as a whole have not done much to adapt to this direct conversation between themselves and their customers. Our clients often ask us to promote their product, but don’t share their secrets. It’s a bit Soviet-era, cold-war thinking!

So how companies (specifically marketing and salespeople) react to this rather important shift away from a salesperson-centric world is found just above the heart, in the head. We focus on the merits of the product, rather than the props of good salesmanship. You don’t tell people you have a better product—you build a better product.

Now, I recognize that sales are still critical to success; but, I also see that companies who focus and invest in the product over the salesperson strengthen a sustainable asset—and the demand for it.

One can argue a position that contrasts this idea by pointing to brands that are “skins”—brands that have not invested in product, but have done just fine. Fine for now, I would add. Two factors will always play into any brand that fits this position. They are either pop brands that will wash away after the social tide carrying them along begins to ebb. Or, they are brands that have actually built great products and used powerful social tools to sell them. You could point to GM, a strong brand that made good products, then stopped making good products, but continued to sell them. Now, they have lost both brand cachet and their customers.

Back to task—the value of ideas. More than ever, the world is about ideas. An idea can look like an engineer who finds a better way to scan thousands of paper documents. An idea can look like brilliant design for a wallcovering or even code for a digital medical record.

Effective marketing follows the lead of great ideas. And great salespeople help prospects discover how the great idea can help them. This is the winning model for the new world.

Do you invest in ideas? Are you building your communications on the value of your ideas? These are the questions of the savvy businessperson. These are the questions of the successful business.

Why does this work? The product built on ideas can be marketed well and survive outside of controlled channels of communication. And ideas need to connect to buyer benefits! The expression “Great advertising is the quickest way to kill a bad product,” has more application today than ever. In our grandfathers’ day, it was still true, it just took more time for the truth to get around. Now, it’s as fast as a blog entry and an email from a BlackBerry. The remaining question is: “ How will you respond?”

Too many B2B companies live in the ways of the old world. The importance of sales has not changed, but its role in the communications process has. It’s more critical than ever that sales and marketing work together, that both embrace the power of ideas and that both understand that what you say about your product or service is far less important than what you are.

Thanks for reading,

Sean
sean@fitzmartin.com