you moron
TRANSCRIPT
YOU MORON!
The quick guide to disruptive selling without tipping the status quo
It’s all about balanceWhen you put a new idea or a new product in front of people, you are deliberately unsettling the balance and challenging the status quo.
Worse still, your target market may already think they have no need for your product, because they already have one they think does the same job.
Unless they are out looking for a new product they are not even thinking about you or your product.
So then you get in touch out the blue and tell them about your product - the one they are not even thinking about - how it is the only product on the market to do something and without it they just can’t get things done, everything before your product doesn’t work now and is redundant.
How do you think they feel about it?
Grateful - unlikely.
Intrigued - maybe.
Defensive - almost certainly!
Everyone buys emotionally..
..even the most cynical procurement person.
As a result they commit to their purchases, even if its only on the basis that it was their decision to make the purchase and they therefore believe it was a good decision.
So no matter what, they have a personal and emotional tie to the purchase.
So what do you think happens when you tell them the purchase they are happy with was not as smart as they think?
You are basically saying to them..
•You made a bad decision buying that other product
•You made a mistake
•You should have waited for our new product
•You moron. I bet you feel stupid now
Don’t believe us?
Well, think about this presentation and see how you feel the next time someone tries to sell you something you think you don’t need and see if you think we are right.
You are telling them they are morons
And the average human reaction to that is..
..unlikely to be one of instant realisation and gratitude
In effect you are criticizing someone, not to mention making them feel embarrassed in front of their peers and that is stressful.
Stress induces defensive and even aggressive reactions.
So what you have just done is the exact opposite of what you were hoping to.
You have someone at least passively if not actively resisting what you are suggesting is a good idea
What do you think that will do for sales?
But you can help it want to change.
Part of the challenge of launching a new product or even introducing an existing product to a new prospect is overcoming the status quo.
Trying to force change without doing the right groundwork and building the need to change is why you can finish up accidentally telling your prospective customers that they are morons.
Some people call this education, we thinks its simply a process of providing your market with the information it needs to question the status quo and build up the desire to change.
Its also a process that takes time and starts with a drip feed and builds to a crescendo.
You can’t force change on a market
Apple are the masters of disruption. Few if any other companies have managed to make such huge changes to the way we do things in such a short period of time.
What’s more when they do introduce a new disruptive product (anything beginning with i recently) millions of people queue up overnight to be the first among their friends to get one?
But how do they do it.
Think of it this way. How long before a new Apple product is launched to you start to hear rumours? How many little snippets of ‘leaked’ information are you aware of?
Then there is the language used at launch and the way the launch itself if managed.
Bottom line - by the time it hits the shelves we want to change, we need those i Pads.
I ♥my iPAD
Do you really need that i Pad?
Talk Disruptive to me.
This is in our view critical.
If you are going to persuade a market to change its outlook and look at new products and new ways of doing things, you can’t call people morons.
We recommend a lot of care with this:
• Acknowledge that what has gone before is good and people bought for good reason.
• Use words like revolutionise, enhance, improve, change, better - in short make sure your target audience know a big change is coming
• Explain why, but be positive make people feel excited that a better way of doing things is coming
• Keep it focused on the audience - make their lives better, because they don’t care about yours
• Don’t claim to be brilliant even if you are, no one likes a big ego
It takes time
We look at new product cycles a lot - we are a bit product geeky - and for every successful disruptive product launch we see, there is a constant - time
We mentioned it earlier, but essentially you can’t rock up on a Tuesday, launch a product with lots of noise and expect it to do an iPhone by Friday.
It takes time, you have to build need, create the case, engage the market with little bits of excitement - its kind of like the ‘Coming Soon’ posters you see on the boards covering shop windows when they are being refitted - it makes you curious.
When you are curious you are open to new ideas and new experiences - ready to change.
However the key to this is that it takes time to build this curiosity and there are no shortcuts
So when does the selling start?
Right from the start.
It might not be sales folk out trying to take orders, but right from the start you are selling:
• An idea that there is a better way.
• Change as the right thing to do
All this is designed to build curiosity and a desire to find out more.
Do it right and by the time you launch, selling the product should be a lot easier because you will have generated a market and demand.
Sounds pretty straight forward doesn’t it?
(One caveat though. Try this without doing the right market research to really - and we mean REALLY - get under the skin of your market, the evidence shows that you are more than 70% less likely to succeed)
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