Selling Specifications is Lazy
In this short 2 minute video - Innovation Expert Mat Shore talks about the importance of converting specifications into a Value Proposition. He explains why companies that are successful use Value Propositions to prevent becoming commoditised.
Mat Shore has trained 35,000 people worldwide in Value Proposition creation and his clients include GE, Philips, Samsung, Citrix and many other blue chip companies. He's trained in 27 countries around the world.
Transcript of video:
I went in to buy a TV in a department store recently. I said which TV should I buy?
The guy in the store said “Buy any, they are all the same!”
I said “No, that can’t be true can it?” “It can’t be true that they are all the same?”
He said “Yes they are..look!”, “They’ve all got (helpfully!) a sticker on the screen”
And it all says the same thing, 1080 progressive scan, 4 x HDMI, 1.4 HDMI
24Hz Movie Mode, blah, blah, blah
He said “Look! you can see and compare that they are all identical”
So I said “Which one should I buy?” and he said “Given that they are all the same”
“Just buy the cheapest one”. That is HORRENDOUS for the manufacturers!
They have created that problem for themselves.
They have given the sense that you should be comparing specs with specs
And that, that is a helpful thing to do.
They are providing you with the ammunition to shoot themselves in the foot!
What should have happened there is, I walk into the department store and say I want to buy a TV
The person says, “What do you predominantly watch?”
“Sport”. “OK then, you need a Samsung Sports TV!”
I’m not going to get into the specifications of a Samsung Sports TV
Because the manufacturer has worked out what specifications make it better for watching sport
You don’t need to super-educate yourself on the specifications
You see, this is what’s going on! It’s bizarre right? This is what’s going on here!
I just have to stop myself to think about the illogicality of this!
We’ve got people that are working in companies that are paid to do a job
And their entire job is to take the specifications of a product and convert it into a story
And pass it on to the consumer.. That’s all they are paid to do! And they can’t!
So they just pass the specifications directly on to the consumer
That’s failure 101 in the job!
But what they are thinking is, the consumer will now look at those specifications
They will intellectualise those and say “OK!”, “That specification equals this benefit”
So apparently the consumer who has no agenda to do so, who isn’t being paid to do so
Who has as lot less time to do it, apparently is going to do the job that the person
In the company was paid to do for 2 years and couldn’t do!
Why would that happen? It won’t happen will it?
The consumer will look at it for 10 seconds and say I don not understand what those specifications mean
I am moving on to another company, that can be bothered..
To translate those specifications into value
To me, that’s all that our jobs are!
I mean at the very, very basic level in a technology company..in an engineering company
The single most important role is to translate the technology into value!