Game changer. Revolutionary. Gonna change everything. The end of the industry as we know it.
We hear stuff like this all the time at conferences, in blog posts, and repeated and retweeted across the social web.
It’s usually being said about technology. I’ve said stuff like this about technology.
But I’ll tell you something that isn’t a game changer or revolutionary but is instead simple common sense: technology doesn’t change games or participate in revolutions.
People do.
People change their game and do things differently. People participate in revolutions and change the outlook and stance of their society.
Sure, technology plays a part. But it’s people who are doing. Every single time this is true. People do something, maybe with technology, but people are the ones doing something.
How does this happen? How do the game changing ideas or values get transmitted from the broker or agent to the customer? And how does all that look from a relationship standpoint? Or a revenue stream standpoint?
Using the business model generation framework, there are two areas dealing with customer communication:
1) The channel for delivering product/service; and
2) Relationships for getting feedback about your product/service.
You can sort of think of the channel as stuff going from you to the customer. And you can sort of think of relationships as stuff going from the customer to you (though it’s very nice if you think of this as two way communication as well).
Channels and relationships flow from value proposition and values
There are a lot of game changers out there that want to revolutionize your channels and your customer relationships. While chasing them in order to avoid the end of the industry, you may be distracted from your values.
Don’t let that happen.
Don’t lose sight of your value proposition. Because that’s the only part you own–the technology nearly always belongs to someone else.
If it doesn’t feel right for you, it’s not going to work. If it doesn’t feel right for your customers it’s not going to work.
In my session for RETSO this year, “Channels, Relationships, and Revenue,” I’m going to be giving away some data about how technology is used by customers in real estate. I’m going to be talking about how technology can reinforce different ways of making customer relationships work. I’m going to give you some tools, techniques and models to do this sort of stuff on your own as well.
After you’ve worked with Jeff Turner to determine what your value proposition is–the big “Why?” in your business–I’ll be working with you to figure out how to deliver that value to customers and and how to assess whether you’re actually doing it.
It’ll be a game changer.
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