Brent Far, now known as “slippery hands,” has become frustrated with his career for all the obvious reasons. Although he’s had some great years, he needs to find something else to do. As you may recall in January, he had some problems being able to get things into the hands of teammates. Since he’s made most of his money with his hands, and he used to be nimble on his feet, he feels the best way to make money in a new career is to use his hands in new ways, and learn to travel better…and he needs a coach like you to help him with his new career.

Brent has moved to Santa Rosa (it became a bit awkward to live in Minnesota) and wants to start the “Slippery Hands Massage” business, where he provides massages in the comfort of clients’ homes. He wants to charge a flat rate of $50 for a one-hour massage. Brent knows that travel time in Sonoma County is about three minutes per mile, depending on the time of the day. With all expenses included, Brent figures, with the help of his CPA, that the travel time is costing him about a $1 per mile. Additionally, since he’s on the road today, he’ll need to buy lunch for $10. Brent’s first appointment is in Petaluma, which is 10 miles south of Santa Rosa. The second appointment is in Healdsburg, which is about 10 miles north of Santa Rosa. His last appointment is in Forestville, which is 10 miles to the west of Santa Rosa.

 

Time to dig deeper:

Now, Brent’s wife, his great mentor, has entered the conversation and wants Brent to take on a whole team to help him keep from being injured…a “new” team of 10 seems about right to protect him this time. So, Brent Far hires 10 men (since that’s what he’s familiar with) to work in his business. As you might imagine with his former teammates, some have very large hands…perhaps the one-handed massage special would be an idea. Brent is willing to share the profits 50/50 with his massage associates. He’s promised them they can make at least $100 per day for less than an eight-hour day…he also knows some of them are still upset at his performance in his previous career and doesn’t want to disappoint them…and he has reason to be concerned. What would you suggest for Brent Far to be successful?

 

Business Development Principles

In order of importance, a business owner must address a customer’s issues, problems and needs (IPN) to achieve a sale. However, the first part of most conversations usually involves discussion of a problem, which ordinarily results from an ignored issue before it becomes a true need. Here are the basic definitions of those terms regarding customers.

Issue: A basic underlying requirement, obligation or hope (without experiencing pain).

Problem: An issue that’s grown to an acceptable level of discomfort/pain.

Need: A problem that’s developed into acute pain and unacceptable discomfort.

You’ll only gain a competitive advantage over your competition if you’ve correctly identified your customers’ IPN. To identify and make use of this information, you’ll need to do three things: Communicate with your customers to discover their IPNs; establish ways to record and interpret customer information, responses and feedback; use this information when making recommendations or product/service suggestions.

 

Exploring the customer IPN

Customers have several basic buying considerations:

1. Value (how you and your product are with trust, uniqueness and benefit);

2. Performance (how well it will deliver the perceived benefits);

3. Appearance (how “cool” will it make them look);

4. Comfort (how easy is it to use—and, no, they don’t want to read the manual);

5. Economy (how much it will cost to operate and maintain);

6. Durability (how soon will they have to buy the next one); and

7. Cost (how much will they have to spend now? Do you accept credit cards?).

 

Send us an email to consultants@californiabusinessdevelopment.com for several ways to improve your understanding of developing your customers’ IPN.

 

Do You Have the Answers?

a. $150  

b. $100  

c. $90