The Real Reasons Customers Care About Your Product

In a world overflowing with options, it’s easy to get caught up in the race to add more features, more bells and whistles. But let’s pause for a moment and ask ourselves: What truly matters to our customers?

Shifting the Spotlight to the Customer

We often focus on what we think is impressive about our product – the cutting-edge technology (AI cough cough), the innovative features, the fancy design (rebrand! cough cough). But here’s a thought: Customers don’t care about your product. They care about solving their problems.

“I really wish LinkedIn just had AI write intros for me at the click of the button when I’m connecting with a new contact.”

It’s Not About Us

When we flip the script and view our product through the eyes of our customers, everything changes. The conversation moves from what we offer to what they need. It’s easy to say this again and again – you’ve heard this before – but it’s a lot harder to stick with doing this. For sure. That’s why we put together the Ultimate Product Messaging Template. It’s really a framework to help you stay focused on what matters most to your customers (and convert them into active users in the process).

Unpacking the Essence of Value Drivers

So, we got this question recently about the template:

I’m having trouble understanding the “value drivers” section. Do you have an example of what this might be for another company so I can better understand? Thanks!

Right, what are value drivers? Think of them as the customer-centric view of the benefits/value your product delivers. But super distilled down – they’re not a laundry list of features but the super-refined benefits that resonate deeply with your audience.

• Loss Avoidance: Specifically, what’s the distilled down value that enables your customer to avoid pain?
• Gain: Specifically, what’s the refined gain – the end result – for your solution? Top 3 outcomes at the most.
• Logical Argument: If there’s a refined pitch that your buyer is going to make to procurement – what is it?

Less Is More

It’s tempting to include everything – all features are great. All loss avoidance is key. All gain is a benefit that needs to really be considered. But in reality, honing in on a few key value drivers makes your message clearer and more impactful. Your products or solutions are just simply not that broad in the eyes of your customers.

A Lesson (and Cautionary Tale) from Mailchimp

Let’s take Mailchimp as an example. We all know them as a powerhouse in email marketing, but their messaging sometimes gets confusing with talks of AI-generated content and top-of-mind (for the product team) capabilities.

That’s great! The outcome Mailchimp is pitching is converting more customers. Totally aligned with what customers want. So, how is this backed up on the page:

…and that’s a little bit all over the place. All benefits. Lots of feature/function/capability, but not a lot of backed-up value with a customer-centric focus.

Our example, Mailchimp: What Do Customers Really Value?

So, our quick take is that if you distill down what customers actually value Mailchimp for it might be something like:

1. An All-in-One Email Solution

   • Everything Under One Roof: Managing lists, segmenting audiences, creating campaigns, and analyzing results without juggling multiple platforms.
   • Streamlined Process: Simplifying email marketing so users can focus on crafting meaningful messages.

2. Ease of Use

   • User-Friendly Interface: Tools and templates that anyone can use, regardless of technical skill.
   • Accessible Entry Point: A freemium model that lowers the barrier to entry.
   • The Reason They’re #1: Mailchimp didn’t become a leader by overwhelming users but by making email marketing approachable.

3. Insightful Analytics

   • Understanding Engagement: Clear insights into who is opening emails and clicking links.
   • Driving Better Decisions: Allowing users to refine their strategies based on real data.

Refining down your value drivers means that you can refine your messaging and be consistently on-message. Here, for Mailchimp, they could pitch and stay true to these core values: all in one, ease of use, and analytics. And they could do it probably while also even highlighting their innovating features, of course. But getting clear with the internal team from a customer-centric view of things is the only way to get consistency in your messaging.

The Pitfall of Internal Enthusiasm

When teams sit down to define value drivers, there’s a natural tendency to include everything that excites them.

• Feature Overload: “We have AI! We have SMS campaigns! Our UI is the best!”
• Losing Sight of the Customer: In our excitement, we risk forgetting what the customer actually cares about.

Finding Common Ground

• Listen More: Engage with customers to understand their needs.
• Prioritize: Not every feature is a value driver. Focus on what makes the biggest impact. Be honest and authentic.
• Stay Grounded: Remember, it’s about them, not us.

“The best way to sell something — don’t sell anything. Earn the awareness, respect, and trust of those who might buy.”