photo credit: Russ Neumeier
When you think about telling your customers not to purchase your key product of success, you think that’s out of this world crazy. However, for Xerox it worked like a charm, it actually boosted their growth. Rather then working on selling their clients products, they are now selling them solutions such as long term consultation’s in efforts to keep their existing equipment working longer.
While you may think this is strange, think about it for a minute. Rather then making that huge sale every five or ten years, they will be making smaller sales on existing services and products on older equipment more often. This could add up to or more than selling a large new piece of equipment once.
If your company is contemplating this type of action, think about this first:
Start with a deep understanding of how the customer frames the problems they are facing. It’s easy for companies to fall into the trap of thinking that customers care primarily about the products they purchase. Often they don’t. Those products are means to an end. In Xerox’s case, it doesn’t sell copiers. It sells workplace productivity. Understanding how the customer frames the problem helps to highlight different ways to address that problem.