Inward-Out’ thinking – it’s something every business owner has been guilty of at one time or another, but it’s something that could seriously hinder your ability to connect with your customers.
So what is ‘Inward-Out’ thinking? Quite simply, it’s focusing too much on what you do, and how good you are at doing it, rather than looking at what your customers really need.
Picture an advert or website promoting a beauty spa. It’s quite easy to imagine the first thing you encounter being an extensive list of services –
‘We offer manicures, pedicures, massages, spray tans, bird waste facials (it’s a real thing, honest!), and a partridge (free pear tree included).’
But do people enjoy having strips lathered in hot wax applied to their eyebrows before having them unceremoniously ripped off again?
Of course they don’t. (Those that do tend to gravitate to discreet, underground ‘clubs’, but that’s another discussion altogether).
What a beauty salon’s
clients really want is to look beautiful and to feel good about themselves, just as people who buy an electric blanket
really want a cosy night’s sleep, and people who hire a cleaner
really want free time.
Or take Harley Davidson. Sure, they could focus on the fact they make skillfully engineered, high-performance motorcycles manufactured from the finest components, blah blah blah. But in the words of their CEO, what they really do is:
“…allow 49 year-old accountants to dress up in leather and ride through small towns scaring people.”
This is an ‘Outward-In’ approach.
So how can you bring this approach to your business?
Understanding your target market is crucial to delivering these dynamic, emotional messages. And I mean truly understanding them; not just recognising that the bulk of your clients are ‘baby-boomers with two grown children and disposable incomes’, but really digesting what it is that motivates them; what worries them, what challenges them, what inspires them and, of course, what drives their purchasing decisions.
The quality and value in your service or product is not what you put into it, but what your clients or customers get out of it.
Listen to feedback – invite it in and welcome it when you receive it. Those insights will guide your marketing and sculpt the direction your brand moves in.
Of course there’s a time and a place to promote services and credentials. But when you’re first reaching out to your customers your messaging needs to make an emotional connection; you have to tap into their inherent needs, display an understanding of what they really want, and then show them how you can help.
After all, without paying customers you have nothing. They have the power to render any business redundant simply by choosing to spend their money elsewhere, so it pays to listen to what they really want.
