We hear a lot about value, jobs, and other terms that we connect to the work that we do.
Yesterday I was working through catching up with some reading on my iPad when I came across an HBR.org article that was just fantastic for the way that it conveys the need to think beyond the obvious to uncover what your customers really view as the value you create for them through your product or service.
In reading this piece, the example of condominiums was used to illustrate that downsizing a home wasn’t specifically about a home or something else. It was about moving a life.
When you think about things in that term, you realize that maybe you have been underselling your product or service a little bit. If it isn’t about housing, but your whole life…wow!
For many of us, it is pretty easy to step back and think about things from the most obvious POV.
For those of us that work in professional services, it is often pretty easy to think we are just marketers or sales trainers or IT consultants.
The transformation for me was when I realized that I was helping people and organizations grow and thrive, that I was there to help them overcome potentially catastrophic challenges and pitfalls.
For many of us, the leap is a lot further.
I know that Seth Godin writes a lot about the lynchpin. And, I think the leap in our marketing efforts comes when we are able to capture that idea in our own products or services.
An easier way of saying that or thinking about that is that as business leaders, we have one job to do, but often we aren’t exactly sure what that one job is.