The Myth of the Mousetrap
I’m sure most of you are familiar with the old axiom, “if you build a better mousetrap, the world will beat a path to your door.” For many of us, this is a guiding principle when we start our own businesses. Most entrepreneurs generally believe that their product or service is better than what the competition has to offer—otherwise why would we start our businesses in the first place?
The concept of the outstanding product or service that sells itself is fundamentally flawed in so many ways. Even many novice entrepreneurs understand that no matter how good their mousetrap is, it is doomed to failure without an active marketing program to let the world know about it. That’s why I made a significant marketing investment when I first got started—to make sure that the world would know that my superior mousetrap was ready to be purchased. Problem solved, right? Maybe not.
Here’s what I didn’t know at the time. Even if prospective clients know of your solution and agree that it is superior to their current solution, most people won’t buy it. This is shocking to most first-time entrepreneurs (myself included!), but true. Entrepreneurs (again, myself included) tend to forget that the world existed before their business started, and somehow people got by. The solutions they implemented may not have been as good as what you are offering, but they worked.
Most people don’t like change. For many, change is only embraced when what they are currently doing ceases to work. Do you always switch to the better service as soon as it becomes available? While you’re building your better mousetrap, you can’t forget that most of your prospective customers are following a different axiom, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”
Change is hard. It’s risky, it takes time and effort, and even when you think something will be better doesn’t it often turn out to have a different set of problems that you hadn’t initially considered? I use countless products and services that fall into the “ok” category. Are there better choices out there? Quite possibly. Do I want to go through the effort and risk of making a change? Not really. Like most people, I tend to make a change when I really have to—either because the current solution stopped working, is no longer available, or my needs have changed materially. That’s when I seriously consider making a change. The rest of the time I’m merely window shopping.
I learned that my prospects are just like me. They don’t want to change either. So what did that mean for my business? I discovered that many of my prospects were merely window shoppers who had a working solution but didn’t really need to change. I could spend all day showing them how much better my solution was for them, but it wouldn’t get me anywhere. A few of those prospects could be turned into customers, but generally at a cost to me that made them undesirable from a business standpoint.
However, there was another group of prospects out there–people whose needs had changed or their current service stopped working for them. These were prospective customers that were truly ready to make a change. Professionals starting new firms. Businesses that were downsizing. Growing entrepreneurs whose home offices were no longer meeting all of their needs. These were my real prospects. These were the people towards whom I needed to direct my sales and marketing efforts. Once I came to this realization, getting customers became much easier. The return on all of my sales and marketing investments, be they time or money, improved dramatically.
Think about your business for a second. Have you given thought to which groups of prospects not only need your service, but also need to make a change right now? These are the people who are most likely to undertake a change and become your client. Focusing your efforts on people who both need your service and need to change may not cause the world to beat a path to your door, but it certainly will lead to a more profitable business.
Adam Stark is the president of Stark Office Suites. Learn more about his business at www.starkofficesuites.com or call 914-428-0500.
Adam has worked in the local news industry for the past two decades in Westchester County and the broader Hudson Valley. Read more from Adam’s author bio here.