#169
March 17, 2023
The Power of Simplicity
The increased complexity in today’s world has made more valuable the power of simplicity. True genius is being able to describe complex topics simply.
“If you can explain something to a first year student, then you haven’t really understood.” – Richard Feynman
I get frustrated with the long sales cycles in the data space (I run a company that sells data to big companies). There are a lot of reasons for this extended buying arrangement, but I am optimistic that as new tools make it easier to work with & see value in data, the process will shorten.
I am so deeply invested in my own offering that I forget my customers are seeing this with fresh eyes. I can get frustrated when prospects aren’t “getting it” … which is really a direct reflection of my (in)ability to describe “it” simply. Often times, the gatekeeper, hopefully this is my internal “champion”, has to turn around and describe (aka sell on my behalf) my offering to their internal team. See the below linked Raconteur article for some idea about just how many people get involved in the purchasing decision.
Source: Raconteur’s Why making business decisions is harder than ever. January 2023.
At any step of the way, anyone can simply say, “this is too complex, let’s just focus on some other offering”.
A test of describing 90 West’s offering to someone completely unrelated to my industry can poke holes in your strategy. If my non-data-oriented, non-investor, friend can understand what I am selling, then I am making progress. Often times the questions you get from an unrelated party can open eyes to new opportunities.
But, then again, there is nothing new under the sun … & perhaps it has always been this way:
“It has long been recognized that industrial buying is a complex process. The purchasing decisions are carried out and influenced by many individuals within an organization” Yoram Wind, 1978 Journal of Purchasing and Materials Managementz