Bali is a beautiful island, with the waves of the ocean, flowers of sacrifice, incense sticks, the silent world of the temples and with cinnamon trees. Yet, one of the most popular things to do there is visiting the monkey forest in Ubud.
As I have watched there the Macaques eating, I have observed a funny thing: monkeys peel the banana from the “other” end: from the bottom.
In fact, I tried it at home later, and voila, monkeys are right: it works even easier, and the fruit will not be squeezed at all.
I almost have forgotten this, but years later, I was invited to a big IT project sales meeting with others leading the discussion.
Oddly, I had the same feeling again of something being not right: everything was set to the technology being in focus, and I have seen the helpless faces of our customers. I have started understanding, that our approach was like “peeling” the banana from the wrong end.
Sales discussions focusing too much to the technology squeeze the opportunities to one or two products, which may not even “taste” good for the customer. Starting from the other end – with the value proposition – leaves the door open for a wide range of tools and gives a higher chance to find what fits the most and win.