“Find a Need, Fill a Need.” Is this the right way to go to market?
Companies invest a lot of time, money, and resources into the creation of their products and services. Yet, these valuable resources usually dive deeply into how their product works or what its function is – while often ignoring or rather wrongly focusing on how to attract clients to what they are selling. This is where marketing plays its role.
Any outreach that comes into contact with a prospective client in any way, shape, or form is performing a marketing function. The question is, do companies know how to perform marketing functions in a way that accurately represents their organization while effectively reaching their target market?
My hope with this post is to paint a vivid picture of the difference between a client’s needs and wants and also layout some common problems or challenges that businesses face while trying to figure out the best strategy that they should use when marketing to their client base.
Let’s start with the idea behind the title of this post…
“Find a need and fill it – Is this really the key to successful marketing?”
In the past, businesses were built on satisfying customer’s needs. While this is still the case, however, now, it’s more about customer’s wants. The real question is if people actually understand what they need vs. what they want?
Need – Loosely defined as something that is necessary for survival.
Want – Loosely defined as a wish, craving, demand, or desire for something.
Many needs can be translated into wants when the right message is sent to consumers. People may not need to get the latest brand new thing, but they want to feel that sense of security, excitement and success that goes along with having something shiny and new to show off.
As with everything in life, there are always multiple opinions on theories or ideas and marketing is no exception. Just because some marketing advice is repeated often, doesn’t necessarily make it true or applicable in all situations especially in business. I both agree and disagree with this statement and will explain why.
“Find a Need, Fill a Need”
If you follow the “find a need and fill it” marketing strategy you will be inviting commodity pricing. Think about this… People need a computer network set up … but they want someone who understands their business, and that will suggest things to make it run smoother before an outage occurs.
People price shop for what they need. Most things that people need have multiple alternatives and competition in the marketplace. Therefore, people tend to buy things that they need based on cost by going for the most cost-effective option. Alternatively, people will pay premium prices for things that they want without even thinking about it. Take Apple for example, Apple understands that people will buy what they want regardless of the price that they have to pay to get it. There is a certain allure and sense of satisfaction when purchasing something that one wants. The “Find a need and fill it,” approach is great for getting in the door with a client, particularly if you’re the first to knock and their need is urgent…nonetheless, that approach may not always win you the client or retain the long term business that you are inevitably going for. After that point is when you market to clients based on their wants.
People will pay for the intangible things – are you proving these?
“Find a Want, Fill a Want”
On the flipside, if you follow the opposite “Find a want, fill a want” strategy it could lead a new marketing revolution for your company. Of course there is always a process in finding both needs and wants, it is essential that both be filled. To fill a need is not just about filling the gaps but to really provide a solution – and a lasting one at that – thus creating a long-term revenue stream. To satisfy your customers you must both fill the need and keep your customers happy by giving them want they want. But the trick to this is…When finding what they want; you can turn that want into a need by offering the solution to their problem. Think about Technology. Everybody NEEDS it, but if a company also provides stellar support and excellent customer service, you fill the need and also provide a premium service making it a want and therefore more attractive to a prospective client.
How do you find your customers’ needs?
It is not always easy to find one’s needs. Watch for trigger phrases from your clients – People will rarely say that they need your product or service. What they will do, however, is lament the lack of something, or talk about a specific problem or even state an aspiration for something. For example, Instead of a customer saying “I need some new accounting software” they will say something like “I can’t ever get a handle on my receivables.” This then will open the door for you to offer a solution to their problem thus making your offering both a want and a need for them. Also, this will make your company stickier to your clients because you will be providing them with more than just a commodity that the “next guy” could offer them. They will find value in your offering thus making client retention much easier.
ExchangeDefender’s Approach
At ExchangeDefender, we go to market with both strategies in mind – filling needs AND wants. For example, ExchangeDefender’s LiveArchive product is an enterprise-grade business continuity platform that lets you resume work right where you left off if the Internet connection was interrupted or other technical glitches got in the way of getting things done. The best part of all is that LiveArchive is always on, constantly archiving your sent and received mail, so there is no maintenance or management to worry about in case of an outage. So, when doing marketing for LiveArchive we market it as a feature that you want to have to make your offering more attractive to your prospective clients and it will most definitely be something that you need in the event of an outage. We look to fill the essential needs of our clients while also providing them with intangible things that they want like, great customer service and technical support, and also the intangible satisfaction of knowing that if an outage were to happen that they will already have business continuity built-in and in place that they can rely on when they need it.
Final Thoughts
Marketing is very “cloudy” because there is not a right or wrong strategy. The bottom line with marketing is that people buy and will continue to invest in products and services that solve their problems. People don’t necessarily buy something just because they need it or want it. Naturally, price, or ‘value’ will always be an issue with most people but if you have the best solution to solve their problems, then price will be much less of a concern. The goal should always be to create win-win situations for both you and your clients – so find your niche and protect it!
How can I help?
Please let me know if there is anything that I can do in terms of helping you about with marketing. We have a ton of resources to offer our partners including marketing collateral so please take advantage of that and don’t hesitate to contact me!
Stephanie Hasenour
VP, Marketing, ExchangeDefender
stephanie@ownwebnow.com
(877) 546-0316 x735