What we are buying ...

Things aren't going well for the company putting in a new heating system in our home. We have nearly finished renovating and well, the heating is just not working - and the service from the company is anything but remarkable!! They do not appear to follow  "it's the putting right that counts" approach. 

Entrepreneurship at its most basic involves having a product or service, customers who want to buy this service or product and a way for you, as the entrepreneur, to get paid. Key to doing this successfully is to remember what the customer is buying, not what you are selling. The company we are dealing with is selling radiators, a hot water cylinder,  a heat pump and installation. I am really not that interested in any of these - how they work, what their spec is, where they are made ... What I am interested in is what I am buying - a warm home. That is all we want and when my children wake up in a very cold room - I am not a happy Mum!! And so when that is happening, the part about 'getting paid' is just not happening. 

Another example - a couple of years ago we got a brand new BBQ. We were at a Home show, saw the BBQ and decided that we would splash out and  get one with a few more 'frills' than our previous one. We paid a bit more than we had intended but were happy with the purchase. Until it arrived - in a box!!! ready to be put together - by me!!! My family laughed and shook their heads. DIY is not my favourite TLA (three letter acronym).  But took their "laughter" as a challenge and spend a whole Saturday morning cursing my way through the (hopeless) instructions. They may as well have been in Chichewa!!  I did manage to build the thing with only three left over pieces  and it does still work. But it was not what I had paid for - I was buying friends round for dinner, glass of wine, steak on the BBQ - you get the picture (or maybe there is a beer in it). Anyway a missed opportunity by the guys selling to ask if perhaps I wanted to pay extra for it to be put together - something that I would have said yes to, provided the extra wasn't too outrageous - and then if it had been, well I would have been saving money that Saturday morning ! 

So just a reminder - buying the heat not the radiator, the steak not the BBQ, the hole not the drill ! 

And if I now turn the tables - what are the students I am teaching 'buying'?  Will have to come back to you on that one ...