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Achieving Findability, Because You Can't Buy What You Can't Find |
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Alex Machinis at SpatialPoint.com is pretty vocal on the ideal of findability.
SpatialPoint makes mapping and store locators for high volume websites. He helps companies improve their findability.
But even more interesting, Alex talks about findability as part of the sales process. Wikipedia defines findability as “the quality of being locatable or navigable.”
If you’ve taken a solution selling course, you know Column A is the column in the spreadsheet the buyer uses to compare vendors – Column A is his primary vendor choice. In any selling situation, that’s where you want your business to be located. The vendors in the other columns (B,C,D,E) are usually there for price and feature comparisons – they stand little chance of winning the business. If you are not found in column A, you don’t stand a chance.
That means, being found in Column A – your findability is about demonstrating value that moves you into Column A.
As an example, one of SpatialPoint’s customers is a company called Independent Mobile (IMO). This company has changed the entire wireless retail dynamic by offering customers interactive, comparative coverage maps at the point of sale.
The side-by-side coverage maps help IMO remove the confusion and frustration consumers often experience when purchasing a new cell phone. These tools let customers enter information such as their work or home address and then identify which carriers offer the greatest signal strength in the areas where they live and work.
By offering practical findability at the point of sale, IMOs customers can compare various wireless carriers against each carrier’s own published coverage and IMO’s drive-tested coverage. By improving findability, IMO was able to build their brand. IMO demonstrates value at the point of sale by making the best cell phone choice easier to find.
What do you think? What is your findability?
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