Clicks 'n Conversions Blog

This article was first published October 9, 2007 on the Tatum Marketing blog

In yesterday’s post I talked about the dangers of taking a “me too” approach to your marketing. Let’s look a little more closely a why “me too” marketing is such a bad idea.

We all know there’s plenty of competition in every market. And buyers face a plethora of options that can easily paralyze them – for several reasons:

1. Non-technical buyers – software users for example – have a hard time understanding complex technology products & services. They aren’t experts and they don’t make decisions like this every day. Often they really don’t know HOW to make this decision.
2. Choosing a complex technology solution is risky for the buyer. It’s not like buying an office chair you can easily return or replace. It’s expensive, time consuming and often affects other departments within the company. If the buyer makes a bad decision he or she goes down in a highly visible flame.
3. Lots of people get to voice an opinion about the different options in a technology sale. The IT folks may like one solution while operations prefers another and the CFO still another. If the final decider is one who believes in consensus, the buying process can get very tedious.

Not only must your marketing messaging set you apart from your competition, it also must communicate why you’re the best choice for each of the buyers who get to vote in the purchasing process.

And here’s the key: whatever your position, whatever your message, whatever your value proposition – it must be something your buyers care about. To determine what this is, you have to abandon your own point of view and get inside the minds of your buyers.

How do you do that? By letting your customers and prospects tell you what’s important to them. By phone, in person or by survey, ask them. And then listen to their answers.