This presentation by Rory Sutherland humorously makes the case for selling the intangible benefits of our products and services.
Making the sale often depends on our ability to communicate product or brand benefits that transcend product utility. As marketers we tend to think in terms of “solutions” to customer problems — customers are thirsty, so we give them soda pop, they are ambitious so we sell them on college degrees, they want to escape reality so we give them reality TV.
There is another dimension in which needs and wants exist. I call them higher order needs and wants. For those who have memorized Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, these are the social, esteem, and self-actualization levels. Whether or not a consumer believes that a product will actually fill those higher order needs is a matter of perception. It is not “inside” the product like an extra-powerful chemical in toothpaste that will make your teeth so white they glow!, but surrounds the product like an aura.
Making the aura real to prospects is the true challenge of service marketing and branding.
Nowhere is the necessity of communicating a service aura more important than in consulting and coaching. It’s true that our prospects and clients have real problems that they need help resolving. It’s also true that we cannot expect to make the initial sale or develop a client relationship unless we help solve that problem. But if we think that is all we are doing, we are seriously mistaken.
There are thousands of coaches and consultants who promise to help solve customer problems. However, the only thing that will compel prospects to choose you over all those other solution-providers is your ability to help them perceive the aura surrounding your service. Help them to experience that aura and they will demand that you — and no one else — become their coaching partner or consultant.
How are you going to do that?
