Leaders often sell products instead of solving problems. Parker Pens discovered customers buy pens as gifts, Black & Decker realized people want holes not drills, and Wonderbra sells confidence not underwear. Ask what business you're actually in, then align everything else to that answer.
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A few years ago, Parker Pens appointed a new marketing director, and they said to her, how can we sell more pens? Sales of our pens have been going down for years. She went away, she came back to the next meeting, and she said to the other directors, she said, I think you're asking the wrong question. You've asked me, how can we sell more pens? We should ask a more basic question, which is, what business are we in? And the other directors looked at her rather quizzically. They said, we know what business we're in. We're in the pen business. She said, I don't think so. I've asked people why they buy our pens, and they don't buy them to write with. Oh, why do they buy them? She said, well, the person who buys a Parker pen buys it as a gift, as a present to give to somebody else. When the son's passed his driving test, or the daughter's got to university, or somebody's leaving the office, they buy a gift in a case. They give it to somebody who may or may not use it as a pen, but we should change our pricing, our distribution, our promotion, our packaging to be aligned with the gift industry and not the pen industry. They did that and they were much more successful. And the question I want you to ask about your business is this: what business are we in? Or to put it another way, why do people buy our product? The chairman of Black Decker once famously said, people don't go into a DIY store because they need one of our drills. They go in because they need a hole in the wall. Anything else that provides a hole in the wall is either an opportunity or a threat for Black Decker. Wonderbra, in their internal communications to staff, say this: we do not sell underwear. We do not sell lingerie. What we sell is self-confidence for women. So what is it that you sell? What is the problem that you solve? Why do people buy your products? If you can't answer that question, then everything else is becomes meaningless. So that's the first question you should ask at your next management meeting.
