So Really Now: What Job Does Your Business <em>Really</em> Do?

Johnny Fintel: "Dude, my product has 1,000,000,000,000,000 transistors." Blue Lightner: "Nah dawg. My product owns yours. It has a trillion LCD lights." Ricky Flicky Flinux: "Nope, biatches. I win. My idea is pimped out with two thousand AJAX features -- and that's just on the homepage." Mrs. Sane: "Well, my product just helps people have clean floors." Leave it to Mrs. Sane to clean up the mess. Cheesy pun intended. Most marketing efforts suck because of one major mistake: they highlight features over solutions. They tout attributes of the "trillion-dollar ideas," instead of the jobs that they do. Ask this:

1. What do you do?

2. Why do customers need it?

3. And, why do customers need that?

4. But, why do customers need that?

Once you answer the above questions in sequence, you'll have a much better idea of the solutions you provide to your customers. Once you know what job your business does, embrace it. Love it. Share it.

Product features won't win you customers.

Passionate solutions will. Says the legendary Clayton M. Christensen, Scott Cook, and Taddy Hall: "When people find themselves needing to get a job done, they essentially hire products to do that job for them. The marketer's task is therefore to understand what jobs periodically arise in customers' lives for which they might hire products the company could make." Consultant Don Moyer advises: "Sellers, take note: Stop chattering about the attributes of the product. Instead, be utterly clear about what it does for those who buy it." Word from our man, Moyer.

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