That is the general tendency in our culture today. Why bother giving it the time and attention if it is working? It could be working forever if no-one tampers with it. We will deal with it when it breaks. When it becomes a real problem. No matter what the state of affairs, people are inclined to ask the question “Is that a problem?” before they give it any further consideration or consider expending any effort at all.
Once upon a time, it was possible to capture attention by using the 2 age-old proven benefits for all businesses, which are:
- This will allow you to make more money
- This will allow you to save time or money
But these two messages just don’t resonate as well at the outset of the demand generation cycle. On the other hand, any kind of suggestion that there is a problem has the ability to capture some attention or curiosity about what the rest of the story is. Any of these phrases cause prospective customers to give it some attention:
- You have a problem.
- There is a problem.
- This is creating a problem.
- There are many hidden problems with this.
Businesses operate by managing their risks. And ignoring problems is not a good risk reduction strategy. It just leads to bigger problems. With regard to seeking attention and developing interest for your solutions, you are nowhere if you can’t relate to a problem that needs to be solved. You absolutely have to be associated with a problem. Because when something becomes a problem, it gets all the attention, all at once. And both the desire and the need to act comes to the forefront.
And so what does it all mean for all your demand generation efforts? Quite simply, you must be an expert on problems that your product offering addresses. And you must communicate the whole story effectively by both identifying the problem and proving your understanding of it.
Problem Identification
Your understanding of the problem was be borne through the eyes of the prospective customer:
- What is the problem?
- Why is it a real problem?
- How much do people care about the problem?
Proving the Problem
Businesses can’t be chasing mythical problems. They need proof. For your demand generation efforts it means constructing stories to prove out your conjectures about the problem.
- How many stories do you have about the problem?
- How many different ways can you tell the story?
- How many different places can you tell the story?
- Who else can echo and validate your story?
If you can effectively focus your communications around identifying and overcoming real problems, desirable things start to happen. Whether the business who had the problem had an awareness of the problem or not, the outcomes for you will be the same.
Prospective customers begin to listen more. Talk more. And you begin to be associated as an entity that is armed and ready to combat the problem. The outcome is that prospective customers will gravitate toward you and initiate a dialogue. You have created demand and you get to play in the game to offer up your solution.