Dollar Shave Club’s founder Michael Dubin said something like that in his first viral video about his company, and it completely changed the razor market. For a few bucks a month, his company would ship razors and blades directly to your home once a month. Five years later, the company was bought by Unilever, and now other companies, big and small, are trying to get in on the action.
I’ve always admired Dollar Shave Club for how they took on a mature market with a simple offering and innovative marketing. True, many companies could have done exactly what he did — but they didn’t. Well, they didn’t until Dollar Shave Club did.
This got me thinking about our products here.
I’ve been fortunate enough to work in various capacities across the entire organization, including my current role as director of product marketing for our Microsoft platform management business. And I can tell you, there’s a common thread.
We offer products that literally create markets. We have products that are considered leaders in their space, and products that were created simply to solve a specific customer challenge. We have solutions so freaking awesome that they’ve sparked the formation of many of our competitors.
Don’t believe me? Ever heard of Toad? How about Change Auditor? Go Google it and see how many competitors are riding the coattails of those market-changing solutions.
But, I hear you. You’re asking, “Uh, this is great blog, Steven, but what’s your point?”
If you’re looking for solutions to your challenges, or you’re considering a new company to help you overcome your daily challenges, I ask you to consider the following three points before moving forward:
- What’s the company? — Product names and value props aside, take some time to do some research on the company you’re considering. Check out their leadership, sales team, and product people on LinkedIn. I bet you find many of them started here.
- Do they care? — Yes, very subjective, but hear me out. Why are they in business and when did they start? I’m pretty confident you won’t find anyone that’s been at this longer than us, and I’d be willing to bet you won’t find anyone that understands your challenges like we do. Period.
- Why are they in business? — Another subjective question, but I have a great point here. Is it a land grab, quick market share effort to make a buck, or do they have a tenet for why they are doing what they do? Our driving force is that we know you spend 75% of your time managing your current systems and only 25% on what’s next, so our goal is to help you flip those percentages. We want you to be able to focus on innovation while we simplify day-to-day management. It’s that simple.
Boom. Mic drop. Just kidding. Trust me, I’m not naive; I’ve been in this game for more than 17 years. And I know some of you will say, “Of course you say that — you work there!” That’s a valid point, but take the challenge I outlined above and include us in your product “bake off.” See for yourself how we stack up to our competitors.
So, gather your requirements, shop around, compare features, Google it, Bing it (yes, I said Bing). Then give us a call.
Bottom Line
You won’t find anyone who cares as much as we do about your challenges. You won’t find anyone else hard wired to find ways to give you time back in your day. And, you won’t find anyone else with solutions that can’t be beat.
