Why your team needs to know your customers’ job description

A piece of hardware, say an interactive whiteboard, is a tool that aids a customer do whatever it is they want to do. In a sense, they’re ‘hiring’ it to perform a job they need doing. Most technology businesses don’t market like that at all, rather they focus on market sectors like Corporate, Public and Education and not behavioural segments. And having worked in this space for a while, I know, that the market splits in many segments hiring IWB’s for very different jobs indeed.

If you don’t know what the job is, you’re likely to talk to the sector about your differentiating product features and compare performance against your competitors. Your benefit messages involve value propositions like “improved collaboration, audience engagement and team working”, all evidenced by case studies, white papers. and social media campaigns. And with glossy communications and wily sales skills, you incentivise the channel to shift your boxes. Is that an accurate picture?

Customers on the other hand struggle to understand this approach because it doesn’t speak at all to their context of use. They put the work in to work it all out and reach their own conclusion about which tool performs best. If you’re (lucky) to be chosen, they won’t necessarily tell you why, they expect you to know. In fact they expect everything you do – hardware and software developments, customers services, tech support – to add value to the job they use it for. But if you don’t know, you support them well, harming your reputation and impeding your growth.

One easy way to grow is to find out what jobs your customers are performing with your technology. Specifically, ask them for their job description and get them to describe how, where and when they use the technology in that context. Once you know, everything will become clear to your team about how to grow your share of the market.

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