I just spent three days walking through the miles of design and product exhibits at the International Builder Show in Las Vegas. It was interesting to watch exhibiters work hard to engage with potential customers. If an attendee wasn’t there with a specific need or plan for a product the vendors had just a few seconds to capture their attention, or the moment was lost for another year. And of course it is impossible for a vendor to to engage some attendees because that customer will never have a need for the product or service (or at least they don’t think they will). But one interesting and rare occurrence was a product vendor that had more than one booth with the same product. With two booths these savvy exhibiters doubled their chances of being noticed and upped their brand awareness but it still may not have been all that effective if the prospect didn’t recognize any need for their product the first time. However, since long term business is based on relationships, it is more than finding a customer that recognizes a need for a specific product but rather creating a curiosity about a new business relationship. After all, a product is just a vehicle for the exchange of information and knowledge. Does your process of creating and selling your product facilitate the exchange of useful economic and customer knowledge? If not, you are missing out on very important opportunities to build long term brand loyalty!
Some of the problem is certainly that the builder/customer must be open to learning about product knowledge that they may not think they need even if it is just for the sake of learning something new. You never know when you can apply that new knowledge to some new innovative application. But vendors/exhibitors can create more engaging environments that ignite a curiosity in customers that is beyond the product. Vendors need to help their customers understand what other problems their relationship can solve besides the obvious one. Many of the additional problems vendors can help solve (such as warranty, longer life, better batteries, on time delivery or what ever) are not what customers immediately think of when they see the product. Finding new and innovative ways to engage customer curiosity long enough to exchange more knowledge and solve more problems is a better business model and will foster longer term relationships.
Some of the problem is certainly that the builder/customer must be open to learning about product knowledge that they may not think they need even if it is just for the sake of learning something new. You never know when you can apply that new knowledge to some new innovative application. But vendors/exhibitors can create more engaging environments that ignite a curiosity in customers that is beyond the product. Vendors need to help their customers understand what other problems their relationship can solve besides the obvious one. Many of the additional problems vendors can help solve (such as warranty, longer life, better batteries, on time delivery or what ever) are not what customers immediately think of when they see the product. Finding new and innovative ways to engage customer curiosity long enough to exchange more knowledge and solve more problems is a better business model and will foster longer term relationships.
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