There is Margin in Mystery 1
In today’s complex communications world, businesses face a wide array of choices. What's happening in our world is similar to a lot of other markets, where in the name of “customer options”, companies offer a slew of products only slightly varied in the quest to provide a “personalized solution”. For some customers, wading through all the options to find the exact match may seem like a fun and worthwhile exercise, but I think most customers would rather focus on running their business. Hopefully , as a prospective Allworx customer, your business is not entirely based on offering more variants of essentially the same product, and if it is, let me be the first to say this is not intended to be a reflection of your business. I love a great cup of coffee in the morning, but these days when I go to the market to buy a pound of good strong coffee, it seems as if the entire aisle is increasingly dedicated to every variety and nuance of new flavors, different countries of origin and different delivery methods. All I want is a good cup of coffee, so why did that simple choice become so complicated?
In choosing telecommunications products and services, the choices can be very daunting. First, there are many options available. Some companies cater to larger enterprise customers, others focus on smaller businesses. There is no single manufacturer or service provider that truly offers a complete range of products for everyone. Some claim to offer it, but they don’t. That can make gathering accurate information for comparative analysis even more frustrating.
I was sharing a conversation a few years back with a competitor that focuses on large enterprise systems that, on average, cost twice what my products sold for, and so I asked, “Why would someone pay that much for your product when there is really not that much of difference to mine?” His reply was, “Because there is margin in mystery”. I will never forget that quote. Not because of the honesty in his answer, but because of his company’s philosophy that if they offer a lot of options and make it difficult to get accurate information on all the different components and how they interoperate, they can extract more money from you for essentially the same product.
With Allworx product design and marketing, we fight hard every day to enable our customers to rely on us to keep the decision to become an Allworx customer obsessively focused on the proper balance of meeting customer needs without being overly complex. Yes, we offer a lot of capabilities to meet most every requirement, but we don’t shroud our products in mystery - or make that a premise for becoming an Allworx customer. We could choose to shroud our product features in confusing and complex sounding ways, all in the interest of making our products seem more mysterious, or we could focus on taking that complexity and creating something that the largest segment of consumers understand and will benefit from while they concentrate on running their businesses. So, if you ask anyone at Allworx if margin is directly related to the mystery of product complexity, hopefully you will be pleasantly surprised to learn that it is not.
In choosing telecommunications products and services, the choices can be very daunting. First, there are many options available. Some companies cater to larger enterprise customers, others focus on smaller businesses. There is no single manufacturer or service provider that truly offers a complete range of products for everyone. Some claim to offer it, but they don’t. That can make gathering accurate information for comparative analysis even more frustrating.
I was sharing a conversation a few years back with a competitor that focuses on large enterprise systems that, on average, cost twice what my products sold for, and so I asked, “Why would someone pay that much for your product when there is really not that much of difference to mine?” His reply was, “Because there is margin in mystery”. I will never forget that quote. Not because of the honesty in his answer, but because of his company’s philosophy that if they offer a lot of options and make it difficult to get accurate information on all the different components and how they interoperate, they can extract more money from you for essentially the same product.
With Allworx product design and marketing, we fight hard every day to enable our customers to rely on us to keep the decision to become an Allworx customer obsessively focused on the proper balance of meeting customer needs without being overly complex. Yes, we offer a lot of capabilities to meet most every requirement, but we don’t shroud our products in mystery - or make that a premise for becoming an Allworx customer. We could choose to shroud our product features in confusing and complex sounding ways, all in the interest of making our products seem more mysterious, or we could focus on taking that complexity and creating something that the largest segment of consumers understand and will benefit from while they concentrate on running their businesses. So, if you ask anyone at Allworx if margin is directly related to the mystery of product complexity, hopefully you will be pleasantly surprised to learn that it is not.
