Here let me read it to you or listen direct on Spotify

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Not much thought at all

 

Did you know there’s a US presidential election this week?

It’s a lesson for us business folk in the depressing simplicity of the purchase process.

You’re probably thinking, how much more “drunk grandpa at Christmas dinner” can Donald J. Trump be before people stop voting for him?

The answer is: plenty drunk Grandpa. Because a big chunk of voters don’t give it much thought at all.

They have a lot to deal with. They’re working three jobs just to keep their family housed and fed. They’re not listening to political analysis podcasts. TV news doesn’t reach most of them anymore.

Those detached voters walk into the voting booth, and see two names. One they recognise because of fifty years of relentless exposure. Whatever you think of Trump, he is an all-time genius of gathering media attention, and it doesn’t matter if it’s positive or negative.

That voter goes, I’ve heard of that guy. I’ll vote for him.

That awareness is all it takes.

 

Voters and customers are the same

 

It’s the same with customers buying products most of the time.

Some are super-involved with that product choice. Researching it hard. Having strong opinions. Telling their friends about it. Same as enthusiastic voters.

Most customers aren’t like that. They don’t analyse their purchase process. They don’t think of your brand story, purpose, key selling points and all the other detail that fills up your Post-it notes back in the brainstorming room.

They just go: I’ve heard of that brand, that’ll do.

Like some single-celled organism that eats by engulfing nearby food particles with its outer membrane. Literally that much thought and consideration.

In your mind they’re all moving through your sciencey-looking funnel, engaging with your touch points, crystallising your influence into purchase intent.

Some are. At a thousandth the speed you imagined. Because you love your product and you’re too close to it to be objective. Customers got other stuff to worry about.

 

Why the big guys keep winning

 

When you’re about to release that product or service, you think hard about how to set yourself apart from the others.

If you’re new, you face big competitors with long-established market share. But you know there’s a better way that you can offer.

Better product, better service, faster response, better value, you’re so ready to take them on. Those big guys are so complacent.

You’ve spoken to some customers, and they are so ready for something better. They’ve said to your face that they’d buy your product.

Almost all of them will not buy your product. What they say versus what they actually do is an eternal problem for new businesses. A while back I wrote of how this killed wonderful shoe brand Shoes Of Prey, who did a huge capital raising to deliver what the focus group people said they wanted.

You still need to do all that thinking about what makes your product different, because it’ll pay off way down the track.

Just don’t take offence that despite your deep passion for your product, most customers don’t know or care.  And won’t for a long time.

 

The unawareness years

 

If you knew how little people cared you’d think hard about starting a business.

We spent a decade hearing customers call our business Sea Change. As in the beloved turn of the century ABC drama series.

 

 

We spent years visiting customers to give them a sales pitch, they would give us a lovely positive hearing and promise to get a quote from us next time. Then they would not do that. They would use someone else because they got busy and forgot we existed. It went on and on.

Eventually some of them remembered and are now among our best clients.

Everything you do now has a cumulative effect and will eventually pay off. There’s no shortcut to get you through this unloved wasteland, other than the odd bit of luck. You just have to believe and push on.

 

Find a simple, clear message and hammer it for years

 

Do the work. Do all that thinking. Be clear about what you stand for. Stick to that message. Find something clear, not “it’s our quality and service” or “experience the difference”.

Work on getting your name out there, in whatever way you can think of. Don’t sweat all the six product attributes you want people to remember. It’s not happening. Maybe they’ll recall one if you’re lucky. Awareness you exist is most of the battle.

Don’t start trying to win over low-involvement buyers. Your big competitors will beat you forever.

Find high involvement people that share your care about specific details you’re good at. They’re the product equivalent of people who are on the social streams right now, sweating over the last days of Harris vs Trump.

Someone will love what you’re saying, then a few more. And with the slow miracle of compounding, it can become big after years of what feels like fruitless effort.

Simpler advice than business books

 

You could replace every business book with one line, which is:

It’s going to take much longer than you thought, but persistence will get you there.

Not just regular New Years resolution persistence but decades-long, maniacal persistence. That’s it.

There, saved you reading a bunch of books that are all the same.

Except my book, of course. You know what many people say about it? It’s the second greatest business book ever written, obviously after Art Of The Deal by Donald Trump. Many people come up to me each day to tell me that, some with tears of gratitude in their eyes. Thank you for changing my life Mr Whitworth, they all say.

I’ll finish on a reminder of simpler times when our business was a baby.

Back in the days when marketers liked to make a fun Christmas video, I did this one with the fresh young Barack Obama’s 2008 acceptance speech in Chicago, thanking his hard-working AV crew.

It’s still one of my favourite marketing things we’ve done.

I particularly love this from the comments:

“SORRY GANG its a FAKE……..watch for the Edits and listen carefully.”

Bless.

 

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Zoë Foster Blake said: “Ian is a cheeky, funny, disruptive (and proven: important) business rascal and thank goodness for that.”

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