Outcomes, Not Overtures

Hello "Why" Warriors!

If you're in tech sales or part of a customer success team, you know that the landscape is perpetually evolving. With this ever-changing environment, it's easy to get caught in the quicksand of focusing on your products, their features, and how they stack up against the competition. However, this focus might not be serving you or your customers well, and therefore not serving your sales or expansion strategy well.

Why do our customers choose our products? Why do they keep coming back? Why do they leave when they do? And then… how can I convince them to stay?

I am sure that we've all heard of the saying "people don't buy products, they buy solutions to their problems." This statement isn't just a fancy quote to frame and hang in your office, it's a profound shift in perspective that can revolutionize your sales and customer success approach.

To truly become customer-centric, we need to harness the power of inference, and by extension, empathy. This means getting into your customers' shoes, understanding their motivations, their challenges, their needs, and wants. It means inferring from their behavior, their feedback, their goals, the patterns that they're likely not even aware of and the KPIs they didn’t know you cared about.

Empathy gives you a window into your customers' world, allowing you to understand the outcome they're seeking. They're not just looking for a piece of technology; they're seeking a solution that will make their lives easier, more productive, or more profitable. They’re looking for an opportunity to shine for their boss or the board. They’re looking to be successful. Your customers don't necessarily care about the technical specifications of your product as much as they care about how it will help them.

Now how can you use inference? By aligning your product's messaging to the outcomes your customers want to achieve. Remember, customers don't just want to know what your product does or how you describe it; they want to know how your product can resolve their problems, achieve their goals, and fulfill their needs. Your role is to bridge that gap for them.

In tech sales and customer success, we often get so engrossed in our products that we forget to assess the needs of the people and companies we’re selling to. It's time to switch that around. Let's ask "why" before we tell "how". Let's understand our customers' needs before we showcase our product features.

In the end, by becoming a master of inference, you'll transform your sales and customer success teams from merely being providers of a tech product into becoming trusted advisors to your customers. And this shift is what will make your customers stay, thrive, and become your biggest advocates.

Check out the companion post on LinkedIn:

Keep asking "why,"

Steve Karam