Are people buying what you’re selling?

If not, change what you sell – or how you sell it.

My day started so well. The summer sun poured through my office windows, and a steaming cup of coffee stood on my desk, its rich aroma teasing my tastebuds with anticipation. Then the call came. A withheld number, which is never a good sign. “Hello, Kevin,” said an unfamiliar voice. “Isn’t it a wonderful day?” “Uh, yes,” I mumbled. “But more to the point, who the bloody hell are you?” Actually, I didn’t. Instead, I let him cast his line, safe in the knowledge that I wasn’t going to be hooked. As soon as he said the word ‘cricket’, I knew I was right. You see, you’re either a cricket fan or you’re not. And I’m not. Doug was from a corporate sports marketing company. And guess what? A box at Lord’s (The Home of Cricket – isn’t that a great tagline?) had just come free. Just think of the corporate entertaining I could do! Except I couldn’t. And wouldn’t. And I told him so. “Ah,” he said irrepressibly, “so not a cricket fan. What about football?” No. “Tennis?” No. “Rugby?” No. “Horse racing?” No. “Dogs?” No. No. No.

Game over. Insert new coin.

Sometimes, you just have to face it: they’re not buying what you’re selling. And you can do one of two things. You can either keep on trying, which means you’ll waste your time (and lose lots of other sales to more likely customers). Or you can change what you’re selling. A bit like Virgin Mobile didn’t do when I spoke to them about their mobile-phone contracts. “You don’t send texts?” said the incredulous customer sales person. Yes, that’s right. Calls, yes. Texts, no. So could they give me more calling minutes in lieu of the hundreds of texts I’d never send? Couldn’t they make an exception? “Um, I don’t think so,” she said, fishing around for a killer argument. And then she found one. “You see, if we made an exception for you, we’d have to make an exception for everybody, and give them what they wanted.” Mentally, I moved my chess piece. Checkmate. But I savoured my little moment, and let the silence drag on, until she could bear it no longer. “You see my point, don’t you?” she pleaded. I didn’t. And the very next day, I changed my mobile operator – to one that let me take any mix I wanted of minutes and texts.

Lights, camera, action

Most companies think they know what their customers want. And they keep on hitting those little square pegs harder and harder, in the hope that they’ll one day go in. Clever companies think like customers. And when people aren’t buying, they change what they’re selling, or how they sell it, until customers do buy. Just like lovefilm.com did. When I first checked, this DVD-rental website was just too expensive. I like films, but not enough to pay £15 a month (that’s $22.50 or €17.50). So I didn’t bite. But wait, it told me – I could have four discs at a time, and an unlimited number of films per month. I still didn’t bite. Then my local DVD store closed down, so I checked again. Same deal. Same reaction. And then last week, fearing becoming a social outcast (I hadn’t seen Slumdog Millionaire) I checked again. And there, I saw a new package, aimed at ‘lite’ users, priced at just £4 ($6, €4.60) a month. I bit. So you see? If people aren’t buying, it’s because you’re not selling what they want. It’s not that they don’t like you. It’s not that your product doesn’t work or your service doesn’t deliver. It’s simply that something, somewhere in the mix is wrong. Get it right, and they’ll bite. Find out more:

What do you mean you haven’t seen Slumdog Millionaire? Quick, hurry over to lovefilm.com.
Leg before wicket? It’s simply not cricket. Check out Lord’s Cricket Ground (tell Doug I sent you).

Kevin Communication, Marketing.