Corporations struggle to properly define their value proposition in a manner that differentiates their product from their competitors while aligning with the customer’s needs. A weak value proposition often results in longer, more costly sales cycles, lost sales, and poor customer engagement.  

Senior teams become frustrated with the lack of performance and fall back on trying to improve sales and marketing operational performance. They often succumb to pressures to align their marketing and sales conversations with their competitors that may come from prospects looking to understand how the company’s solution compares with the industry. Pressure also comes from senior teams who perceive a lost sale as resulting from the competitors’ product capabilities. 

Technology product marketing leaders often invest time in developing catchy messages to attract customer attention and often focus on product feature benefits. They fail to align their product value with the business needs of their prospects.

Rather than using an inside-out approach, where the product is at the center, corporations should employ an outside-in approach where the customer is the focus. The first step toward this is to understand the jobs the customer wants to perform.

What are Customer Jobs

Very simply, a customer job is what the prospect is trying to do. It could be to complete a task, solve a problem or address a need. A job is what the prospect is looking to achieve in a given context; that is, the importance of the job may change under certain circumstances. For instance, jobs change when there is a cybersecurity incident. 

There are three main types of jobs:

• Functional jobs are what the prospect is trying to achieve to meet their corporate goals.
• Social jobs are things the prospect does to achieve status or power.
• Emotional jobs are things the prospect does to feel good, feel secure, or have peace of mind.

Jobs are not strictly about function. They can have strong emotional and social aspects. 

Corporations should view the jobs from the customer’s perspective and never through the lens of their solution.

Why are Jobs Important

The key is identifying the jobs prospects are performing poorly and designing product offerings, marketing messaging, and sales conversation around these items. When taking this approach, it is important to assume your prospect’s viewpoint and describe your product’s offering from their perspective using their language. One way to do this is to link the problematic job to the pains the prospect is experiencing and then link those pains to how your solution relieves the pain and helps the prospect complete their job.

Buyers often find it challenging to identify how the solution addresses their needs and must determine how it helps. Similarly, buyers struggle to understand how one company’s solution differs from another, resulting in a longer sales process and introducing the risk of no sale.

Prospects may find product messaging confusing, contradictory or not substantive (e.g., flowery language), making it hard to understand how the product is differentiated and helps address their needs.

By better understanding the jobs, including social and personal ones, corporations can better engage with their customers and have more meaningful, value-creating conversations.

Where Customer Jobs Fit

Understanding customer jobs is the first step to becoming an outside-in company that genuinely puts the customers at the center.

Corporations use Customer Jobs in:

• Value Proposition Design to improve marketing messages
• Sales Conversation Design to understand what the prospect is trying to do
• Product roadmaps to understand the gaps and build out complete solutions
• Comparing offerings with competitors and highlighting the strengths of your solution
• Identifying new complementary products that increase revenue and leverage your install base
• Identify entirely new markets for the underserved needs

Corporations can leverage an understanding of customer jobs to increase sales, improve customer value, and differentiate themselves.

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