A Consumer’s Power

Leading a winning company has never been harder.

Forget about employees and supply chains and Covid. It’s even more basic. It’s about the consumer.

You used to hold all the power through aggregating all the information.

Now, it’s the consumer that has control. Think about it:

• If you wanted to know about a new car, you went to a dealership.
• If you wanted to see the new computer release, you went to Circuit City. (DOH!)

Not any more.

Connection Fragments Us

As a society, we’ve never been more connected. Ask for recommendations. Share experiences through reviews. Citizen reporting. Op-ed on every corner. How to solve that plumbing leak.

Mobile phones place information at our fingertips. And, when your phone is out of reach, Alexa is at the tip of your lips. Access to information is astounding.

Google.

Text messages.

Slack.

Community groups.

Facebook.

YouTube.

Instagram.

Tik Tok.

LinkedIn.

Wikipedia.

Khan Academy.

And on and on where you find your information…

What does it all mean?

Winning consumers’ attention is the most critical element of success in 2022.

Information is Ubiquitous

Back to buying a car. Amanda Holmes shares in her research that consumers used to visit 6 dealerships before buying a car. Now, they visit 13 websites and 1.8 dealerships. Gulp. Fewer chances to convert buyers walking in the door.

By the time a consumer speaks to a salesperson, they’re practically already sold. They’re looking for confirmation of the information and insights they’ve already gathered. Sales just can’t screw it up for the company.

You are no longer the repository of information. Reactively share it with the people who walk in your “door.” Your role has changed. You need to proactively win the battle for attention. You still have to make it easy for people to choose you. But, they have to know about you first.

Think about it. If you’re still competing on Information, you’re sunk (and quite frankly probably pretty useless). There are at least 77 other sources for information. Consumers won’t ever get your information if you don’t ever win their attention.
So what are you doing in 2022? As Seth Godin says, “go make a ruckus?”

Transformation: Information to Insights

Commit to making a change in your business. Don’t just present information. Take it a step further and present insights. Build a strategy around it. Take a stand.  Distill the facts. Compare and contrast. Do the work for the consumer. Make it easier for the consumer. Make it a little entertaining and consumers will pay attention. Serve the consumer. Or, someone else will.

And, here is the ironic part of all the channels of information and disruption above. All of them are available to you. Start today. Or, you may not have a business and consumers to serve.