Here's what they really want and how it creates customer bonding ↓
60 years ago, legendary business genius Peter Drucker made a radical and prophetic statement...
👉 “The customer rarely buys what the business thinks it sells him.” 👈
Lately, everybody in SaaS has been talking about "delivering customer value." But from what I can see, other than adopting the trendy new buzzwords, most companies haven't changed a thing.
Fundamentally, they still think they sell products because they believe that products create "customer value" and that, therefore, customers must want or need them.
EVERY BIT OF THIS ↑ IS WRONG! Here's why...
▶︎ Customers don't want your product or its features, they want RESULTS!
How do I know this? Simple. By far, the best predictor of long-term customer retention is whether they got a MEASURED RESULT! No other factor comes close, and that includes customers who say they got "value!"
▶︎ Results are not the same as "value."
"Value" is a worthlessly mushy concept that leads to mushy retention. Our research shows that customers care about measured results so much that they'll stick around even if the results are bad!
That's why I say...
👉 Measuring results is the most important feature of your product! 👈
▶︎ Your product doesn't produce customer results.
Ask yourself this simple question: "Why do some customers get good results while others don't?" The answer can't be your product because they're all using the same one! So it must come down to what THEY are doing!
It's all about customer behavior: to achieve measured results, customers must change how they work. And this goes way beyond “adoption.”
▶︎ Your real "product" is knowledge and expertise.
The real reason your customers put down money is this: They need a specific result that requires them to change how they work to achieve it. Customers sign up with your company in hopes of acquiring a better way to operate.
Of course, they know they'll need to adopt your product, but they're not enthused about that. What they are eager for is expertise: the knowledge of how the most successful customers get good results.
That's why the ultimate customer playbook is all about transferring expertise to customers. It's not about making customers "happy" or "delivering value."
👉 Your company's most valuable product is expertise: the knowledge of how customers get good results. 👈
Companies with the highest retention have figured this out, and it changes everything about how they operate. This approach:
⦿ Redefines the product from a bundle of features to a better way to work.
⦿ Reframes marketing messaging from features to expertise.
⦿ Upgrades the focus of selling from pricing to customer results.
⦿ Remakes customer success into an engine for transferring expertise and measuring customer results!