Designing perceptions is what strategic marketing, audience choices, and message choices are all about. But if we have designed a wonderful product with an equally wonderful value proposition, why does the magic of this excellent "reality" not sell the product? Why does it take so long for customers to "get it"? What goes on in the mind of a buyer?

"The answer lies partly in physiology," says Roy Williams, in his book Secret Formulas of the Wizard of Ads. He goes on to say "We see, hear, feel, taste, and smell our environment with 100 million sensory receptors, but, because of our 10,000 billion synapses, with which we think and ponder and imagine - we are approximately 100,000 times more capable of experience in the invisible world of the mind than in the physical world that surrounds us."

So the challenge is to capture the imagination of a prospect, knowing that thousands of ideas compete for their attention. To retain sanity, most of these ideas must be shut down. Few ideas and visions can be converted into action, so the action list must be short, and prioritized.

Tip #1 - Get immersed in customer thinking - My experience is that gaining "top-of-mind" is what we must do - and it can only be done by fully exploring buyer needs and current commitments. Complicating matters, this must be done at both a personal and a corporate level. Moreover, if a corporate decision involves multiple buyers, there is a need to talk with each one privately as well as in groups - then come up with a scenario that captures the imaginations of all of them.

For founders and Presidents/CEOs of young companies, there is a challenge of resource allocation. What percent of your resource should be applied to "designing perceptions"? Many young companies go through a long phase of "product development" prior to beginning their "marketing & sales" efforts, and this is justified by a lack of resources. This approach is a good way to get firmly into failure mode. At a recent VC Fair in Ottawa, David Furneaux of Kodiak Venture Partners commented, "We prefer companies that have been very active with their target clients. To invest, we like to see that they have made hundreds of customer calls." This supports my own belief that successful start-ups grow in the laps of their customers.

This reflects a harsh reality - there are long lead times in developing market interest. Early contact with buyers will have almost no success in generating revenues, or even getting progress on today's topic, "designing perceptions." You have to work through several stages; the first is to "explore perceptions" of potential buyers. These initial reactions will place you on a steep learning curve - how do customers think in this market niche? What typical needs do they have - that they would act on if they learned of a solution? What would create urgency? What is the difference between what they say and what they do? How do they currently spend money? Who makes these decisions?

At the same time, you will need to explore the marketplace readiness to accept your new offer. Is there another solution already in the market? Is this competitive solution embedded within a "value chain" of suppliers and sales channels? Will this value chain accept you as a new entrant, or will you need to create a new value chain?

Gathering all this info will give you an idea of the profile of an ideal target - in terms of the position, power, and personality of the human beings you want to sell to. Now you are ready to "design" the perceptions you wish that person to have of your offer, your company. The result is usually one page of ideas, expressed in words that are carefully chosen to intrigue your target buyers, and relevant to pre-existing ideas in their busy minds.

Tip #2 - Communicate - After the design stage, you need to communicate to the marketplace. Phase one is "marketing." It starts with getting your ideas tested and implanted with the thought leaders - people who already have access to the buyer's psyche. It includes communication in publications and at events where buyers gather. It continues with preparation of direct marketing material aimed at the target buyers.

Phase two is "sales." The sales process must be broken down into sub-phases, to ensure customer imagination is engaged before scarce resources are consumed. Next, help each customer develop his or her own vision of a solution. Only then are you ready to talk about your product & how it fulfills their vision.

Phase one is usually best done by the CEO, CTO and your marketing people - phase two by full time professional sales people. In either case, they must feed back ideas to confirm or correct the buyer profile and behavior assumptions. The time lag required to do all this is often longer than the time required to design the product, so get started early.

Tip #3 - Balance resource allocations - Resource allocations are a tough management decision. Designing perceptions may be 30% to 50% of a young company's total resource pool. The work includes exploring pre-existing perceptions of needs, concept development, market testing, and implementing a full effort on "designing perceptions." So who does this work? In larger companies it is done by marketing people and product managers. In smaller companies it still has to be done, usually by the President, product designers, and sales people. People will be wearing multiple hats, so time must be allocated; otherwise this work will fall behind.
And continue profiling customer feelings, values, and visions. After all, we sell to human beings - all of whom have a unique way of thinking about, and perceiving, the world outside. As a 14-year old fan said about the recent Harry Potter film, "it can't compete with a child's imagination." Your prospects are blessed with a vivid imagination too - engage it to help design & validate the market perceptions you need. It is a critical part of winning the competition for customer attention and gaining top-of-mind urgency to turn ideas into action.

from the desk of Peter Fillmore
November 2001

Thinking is Believing...
"We are approximately 100,000 times more capable of experience
in the invisible world of the mind than in the physical world that surrounds us."

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