Marketplace learning dictates business growth

By TJ MacDonald |

The business world has always had its market leaders. We are now seeing a new type of business leader - one that leads marketplace learning. Business profits come from people. Killer products can be great. Systems may be essential to optimize business profits. But first and foremost, businesses depend on people - and on what people learn.

When people learn things that are good for a business, that business can grow - business profits can grow. Let people learn the grass is greener on someone else’s hill, and the result is inevitable. Goodbye business. If it ignores the influence of marketplace learning and starves people of what they need to know, any business can starve itself.

Market leaders win their position through influence on what is learned in the marketplace.

Consider this: You have the best product there is, the most up-to-date facilities anyone could ever hope to have, the smartest, most competent people on the planet, the most efficient operational systems ever devised, and a great ’story’ to tell. Does that mean you have a great business? No. Of course not. You might merely have built one of those better mouse-traps for which no-one is beating a path to your doorway.

If people don’t know about you, what you are offering, your way of doing things, or any of the other umpteen issues that make them want to do business with you, then you don’t have a business. The difference between a great mousetrap and a great mousetrap business is all about learning - marketplace learning.

If people in your market haven’t learned what you need them to know, think and do that will be of benefit to your business then, chances are, you are fighting for every single sale.

Let’s face it – what people know, think and do is primarily learned behaviour. OK, some things come naturally, like breathing, for example. Even so, some of us still come into this world needing a little slap on the butt to change our first struggle for breath into an instinctive, life-giving routine that we can’t do without.

Buyers have more choice about what they take in. Before customers and clients get to the point of deciding they can’t do without you, there’s a lot of learning to be done. Before the sale — during the sale – after the sale (i.e. before the next sale) – during the next sale – before the next sale – etc – etc – etc…

It’s a cycle; at least it is in a sustainable, profitable business.

It seems fairly obvious that if the marketplace learning process never starts, there is no business! But what happens if an initially favourable learning cycle is interrupted or marketplace minds get hi-jacked (by distraction, ignorance, even malice, for example). What happens if buyers, decision makers and other people of influence in your market learn the wrong things? Again, the answer seems obvious. Business results will suffer.

There is a lot that the faceless, nameless population of your market needs to know before some of them become qualified prospects; even more they need to know and do before they become first-time buyers. And a lot more – a lot, lot more – before they are so convinced they want to continue doing business with you that they’ve become advocates for your business. Or as some brilliant marketers I know will call them – evangelists!

So, how do they gain the knowledge, skills and way-of-thinking needed to have this sort of business relationship with you? They learn them of course. They learn by themselves, from you, or from somebody else.

Some of what is learned in the marketplace works for us, some against us. The critical factor for any business operator is that helpful learning outweighs that which hinders. It’s not a balance sheet. You want it to be one-sided – weighted your way – so business flows your way, not to your competitors.

Let’s just accept it. Marketplace learning happens. Has happened, is happening, will continue to happen. There’s nothing new in that. People learn things. Its in our nature. Its our source of progress. Its our difference from dinosaurs and the dodo.

Its also the difference between forward-thinking business enterprises and commercial dinosaurs crashing around in the dark chasing down every hard-fought order with sales tactics from an earlier age.

Forward-thinking businesses care for more than the present. They prepare for the future. They have moved on from the hand-to-mouth, scavenging subsistence of hunter/gatherers. They have become sophisticated farmers. Except now they seed their farms with knowledge, technology and relationships.

And they recognise the most profitable business relationships are not the result of self-centred plucking by a hungry hunter/gatherer. It takes seeding and nurturing to grow enduring, mutually-rewarding partnerships.

A single, solitary sale to a first-time customer is a little like that slap on a new-born bum. You have delivered an irresistible offer. The breathing has started. But it’s still only a first taste of benefits yet to come. To keep breathing – to grow in value –customers need experiences that help them learn to want to do ongoing, profitable business with you.

If you don’t already know , I hope by now you are asking yourself, “How do I do that?” Very soon we’ll start shaping some ideas you can put to work for you.

It’s important because:

Business profits flow to the leaders of marketplace learning.

Let’s talk again soon. Until then…
Learn well, lead well, and thrive!

TJ MacDonald

2 Responses to “Marketplace learning dictates business growth”

val Says:
August 27th, 2007 at 4:49 am
Thanks Mr Mac. We’ve been waiting for you to do this. Much appreciated. Keep those good thoughts rolling.
Marketplace Learning | TJ talks… about Marketplace Learning Says:
September 15th, 2007 at 2:25 am
[…] time to start talking about e-learning and its value to marketplace learning. So far I have been hammering the importance of doing things that help put a positive skew on […]