In my 29 years in the identity industry, I’ve seen marketing messages from a number of companies—my employers, my consulting clients, and my competitors.
And some of the marketing messages target the wrong audience—the audience who WON’T purchase your products.
Telling the wrong product story
I have worked for several technology companies both within and outside of identity, and I know (as you do) how tough it is to create a technology product.
- You have to assemble the technology, or perhaps create the technology yourself.
- You have to work on the most minute details and make sure that everything is just right.
- It takes a great deal of effort.
So when you finally finish your technology product, you have a natural inclination to talk about how wonderful your technology is. Your 4000 pixel-per-inch capture! Your auto-adjusting camera! The hundreds of components of your product! The proprietary technology you authored!
This will resonate with engineers and others within your company who appreciate the time they spent bringing the product to the market.
There’s a problem, though.
- Your engineers WON’T buy your product.
- Your prospects, the people who WILL spend money to purchase your product, DON’T care about your technology. They’ll tune out your message.
- And as an aside, they DON’T care about your company’s unicorn status, IPO proceeds, or quarterly profits either. Unless you plan on distributing 100% of your profits directly to your customers.
What your prospects DO care about
Here’s why your prospects may be ignoring your company’s message. While you may care about the technical details of your product, your prospects care about the problems they face. They will ONLY care about your technology and your product if it solves their problems.
- Do your prospects struggle for visibility? Will your technology help your prospects’ visibility?
- Do your prospects struggle when they are considered against the competition? Will your technology help your prospects stand out?
- Do your prospects struggle to make money? Will your technology help your prospects make money?
- Do your prospects require better ease of use, speed, accuracy, or other benefits? Do the features of your technology provide your prospects with valuable benefits?
In short, your prospects will only care about your technology if it provides value to them.
How I can solve YOUR problem
In the same way that you can solve your prospects’ problems, I (John E. Bredehoft) can solve your problem of positioning your products so that you can woo your prospects.
As I seek a position as a Senior Product Marketing Manager for a technology firm, I help firms win by applying the following three principles:
- Explaining why the firm serves its customers.
- Focusing on customer needs.
- Highlighting benefits.
If my product marketing talents can help your firm:
- Message me on LinkedIn. My profile is https://www.linkedin.com/in/jbredehoft/.
- Email me. My email address is jebredcal@gmail.com.
Déjà vu all over again
By the way, if you follow my consultancy Bredemarket, you may have seen a similar blog post for my consulting clients. I definitely believe in repurposing!
John E. Bredehoft 
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