A map is useless if you don’t know where you are. Many companies fail right here: they start their strategy without knowing their own starting point, and take on risk from the very first step.
Most companies talk about themselves
The vast majority of B2B companies communicate from the inside out. “We are the leading…”, “Our solution…”, “Let us help you…”. Even when you think you are looking at things from the customer’s side, you usually aren’t.
Try it: open a handful of B2B websites at random and count how often you see “we” and “our”.
The starting point has to change. It is not about you. It is about them. What can your customer do once they use your service?
“Looking forward to spending Friday evening with friends and family?” Your customer can, because your service means they no longer sit at their desk doing that task on a Friday night.
Knowing your customer is not the same as understanding them
Most companies know their customers. They know their product specifications and what it takes for a customer to be a good fit. Many have spent years defining how their product helps customers focus on what matters.
Understanding is something else. When I became Sales Director for Xerox’s direct sales in Finland, I started joining the forums and focus groups our customers attended. Only when I began to understand their daily reality did I see how they really looked at us, and how we could actually help them.
You don’t sell your product
You sell what your product lets the customer do. Netflix doesn’t sell you its recommendation algorithms or the next episode that starts in five seconds. It sells entertainment at your fingertips.
Customers buy for one of two reasons: to avoid something, or to gain something. Your offer has to answer one of them.
Find the value
Whatever you sell has a specific value for your customer. When you communicate that value, you stop selling at people and start having a conversation with them. That is when your message starts to land.
This is the first and most important layer of the Revenue Generation Framework™, because everything else is built on it.