In the Market for a Big Idea?
Amid the perma-swirl of structural changes, product/market realignments and new brooms sweeping in, my most typical commission is New Product Rescue.
Most scenarios share a foundation of all-things-to-all-buyers.
Yet especially with genuinely 'new' wares, not all buyers are created equal.
For instance, I nearly always illuminate with a brief history of prime(ing).
As the Diffusion of Technology Adoption curve and its subsequent six decade evolution is often fresh grounding for those involved.
When you start to conflate this with other solution sell frames, sparks fly.
On such trove builds from propensity to buy themes.
Like when still today, someone in the room will know of the Strategic Selling 'response modes' quartet; growth, trouble, even keel & over-confident.
The aim being to eliminate wasted time on those who'd never buy regardless, whilst lasering onto those already primed to listen, and act.
Some light reading on politicians new-in-post threw a neat line our way. As one such recently elevated specimen was marked out as "in the market for a big idea".
Which is precisely the gentle way I'd begun such assessments. Along lines of;
"Where'd you say you are in the market for an idea here?"
What I always liked about it, was from my earliest cubrep days, I never liked talking about "problems" with prospects.
Maybe it's that English reserve wall? Anyway, kicking off with such labelling puts people's backs up.
Yes, you can switch to a solution-orientation. And as I've blogged before there's the useful psychs angle, "issues of concern".
Yet with this approach, the prospect usually either starts to evoke a load of other things on their plate or pauses - the door now ajar - then asks, "what kind of idea?"
The purpose isn't to ram the wonderful game-changing incredibleness we freshly have down their throats.
It's to tap into whether they ready for a conversation about it.
You could go full-on, hardcore 'create the need' focus. I'd suggest that doesn't really work in this zone. Both our time and our target market are finite. We must match up with those most likely to buy in the shortest of order possible.
Sure you can probe if such marketplace is yet to be set foot in. But our winners are already stepping inside. Find 'em.