Buyers vs. Sellers: Who Serves Who?

Author: Jay Deragon

11 29th, 2009

This entry is part 11 of 20 in the series Social Media Directions

Think about how markets have operated in the past. Markets have assumed that buyers can be “pulled” into a transaction without consideration of the buyers convenience. What are buyer conveniences?

When we buy stuff the experience can be good or bad. The difference is a reflection of how brands and merchants view the value of the buyers. The value of a buyer is what creates currency for markets, all of them. What would a market be without buyers, nothing.

History has shown that successful companies start with the buyers preferences in mind first then build a “system” to exceed those preferences. By exceeding preferences, expectations and experiences organizations can win the hearts, minds and wallets of buyers.

The experience of finding what we want
The experience of buying what we want
The testimony of others who experienced the process
The time it takes to do 1 & 2
The references to the value of a product or service we want
The price for value equation
The experience of using the product or service

Sounds simply and yet many markets simply do not consider the buyer first rather they act as though they are more important than the buyer. This thinking has become transparent in today’s digital economy. Why? Because buyers now have a voice given the reach and richness of social technology and their experiences are shared everywhere.

What Does This Mean?

Unless the marketplace thinks “systemically” about how to better serve the buyer then the old marketplace will loose to a new marketplace. The new marketplace will be collaboratively built by merchants who see more value in collectively building a “digital system” of convenience which buyers can interact more conveniently with the marketplace.

Markets need to aim at serving buyers. Buyers serve markets via consumption. Consumption is relevant to need, convenience, price and experience. Given the technological revolution it seems obvious that a new marketplace will indeed emerge soon than later. The new marketplace will not be designed by the “silo mentality of old markets” rather it will be created by those who understand the value of an “open marketplace“.

In case you didn’t know the marketplace is already open to conversations which reflect what the market wants and needs and the voice of experience reflects who is serving who.

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Series Navigation«What Does A Strategist Do?Old Strategies No Longer Work!»

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