Lets start a theoretical business. I have two products, helmets and bandages. The helmets sell for $24 each and the bandages sell for XX.50 each. Which one would you like to sell? Doesn’t seem like it should be that difficult of a choice, right? Well, maybe it is.
Here’s why it’s not such an easy question…
When I was a kid I was really into skateboarding… well actually, the cool kids up the street were really into skateboarding and I was really into acting like the cool kids up the street.
I was never any good. I learned how to ollie (jump with the board) quickly, then I spent a long time trying to learn other tricks… any other tricks… with zero success. Actually, I landed a kickflip once but it was completely by accident and no one was watching.
Anyway, the point it, I ended up running into a lot of walls and leaving large chunks of skin sticking to the asphalt.
I used a lot of bandages, but I never wore a helmet.
Helmets aren’t cool. Kid’s don’t want helmets. But what kids need, and need a lot of, is bandages.
They need bandages for their head, their elbows, their knees, and all of the other unlikely places they get cuts and bruises.
After a kid cracks his head open, he’ll probably realize that he should have been wearing a helmet, but the much more pressing need is the problem he already has… not the problem that is lurking in the shadows.
It’s very hard to convince someone that they have a problem then sell them the solution. And why bother? There are enough problems that require immediate solutions that you can provide.
For the kid, the bandages are much more important because they stop the bleeding long enough to get back on the skateboard. Bandages fix an immediate problem.
Did you choose the bandages for your business?
Not a bad choice… they’re cheaper, sure, but you’re going to sell a ton of them. But let’s shake things up a bit.
Do teenage skateboarders buy bandages?
Nope, their mothers do. In fact, their mother’s buy pretty much everything they own. A mother’s #1 job is keeping her kids alive at least until they’re 18 (that’s the cynical view anyway).
Mothers try their hardest to keep their kids safe… that means they buy all kinds of safety equipment and tell their kids they have to use it. They’ll buy helmets and make sure little Timmy straps it on as he’s heading out the door.
Of course, Timmy is going to lose the helmet as soon as he hits the sidewalk, but mom doesn’t know that and she feels better.
The mother’s immediate problem is the safety of her little skateboarder. Both bandages and helmets are solutions to that problem. So did you switch to selling helmets yet?
The Right Choice Is…
Actually, it doesn’t matter which you pick. Both will sell fine if you get the marketing right. What you sell is much less important than who you sell it to. This has always been true.
Prevention doesn’t sell. The only thing that sells is the solution to an immediate problem. Sometimes it looks like a company is successfully selling prevention, but what they’re really selling, whether they know it or not, is an immediate solution to the fear of a future problem.
A thin line of distinction, maybe, but still a line.
So which would you sell and who would you sell it to? Leave your answer in the comments below.
If you need help finding or reaching the market that’s right for you, I can help.
