Clients, Non-Clients, and Stakeholders, Oh MY!!

So, I'm here in London with the research team, interviewing clients, and non-clients, and stakeholders for the positioning research project for Sapient (my employer). (See previous post here).

We've already spent some time interviewing a large number of our internal stakeholders (in the US), and we found some interesting results just based on that. One of the results is that we seem to be very aligned internally to our message, and our go-to-market positioning. Which was interesting, simply because in previous conversations around the office, no-one seemed to think that we had a consistent message. So this is good.

It will be interesting, though, to see if the messaging that we are using will resonate with clients, and especially with non-clients. So far, we've had 1 client interview, and in one specific area there was a clear difference between what our internal stakeholders viewed as important, and what this specific client thought was important. But that was just one client. We will see what happens as we speak with non-clients (which we are doing in London this week and part of next, and Chicago and New York week after next), and more clients throughout. I'm not going to give away the specific nature of this difference, at least not yet. But it is dramatic.

Which is, I guess, the point of doing customer research - to unearth the differences (and similarities) between what we think is important, and what client know is important. It's so easy for every company or organization to take a look at itself, and say, 'This is who we are and what we stand for. And this is what our clients feel is important about that.' But until you actually go speak with customers, and prospects, and verify these thoughts and messages, all you have done is build a Monument to Yourself. You have taken your organization (it's structure, culture, and history) and presented those as the reasons customers, new and old, should do business with you.

And rarely, imho, do customers and prospects really care about these things. Not one customer wakes up in the morning and says "I need to find a new partner, one who has an organizational structure along geographic lines (or functional lines, or based on the size of their clients - all examples that I know everyone has seen). Likewise, if you were to go back to your customers and ask them why they chose to do business with you, I would bet that it had nothing to do with your org chart, or how many people you have in your firm, or who your partners are. Maybe (and I really mean maybe) it is what these things represent to a client that's important. Yet how many web sites and marketing materials discuss how the organization is structured or these other things, specifically in the B2B industries? Virtually no B2B marketing materials are told from the POV of the client (see previous post here).

What clients care about are the things that are important to them - the things that they view as helping them be successful. And until you go and ask them what those things are, you just keep adding on to your monument

And you keep on adding to it, until it becomes so big, that it is almost impossible to find your way out of it. You start believing that your monument is unique, and that no other monument maker can do what you do, in the way that you do it. Tell you what, go do a competitive assessment. Take a look at your competitors' web sites and marketing materials. Take their logos off and put yours in those spots. Does it work with your logo on it? Is it the same words and phrases (and maybe even imagery) you use? Recognize your monument? Bet you, you do.