Stop Selling Products.
Start Solving Problems.
Why do customers with a clear problem—a problem your product was designed to solve—so often choose to do nothing? Discover the “Jobs to Be Done” revolution.
Uncover the Reason ↓Your Biggest Competitor Isn’t Who You Think
It’s not your rival. It’s the messy Excel spreadsheet, the chaotic sticky notes, the innovation-killing phrase: “Eh, we’ll deal with it later.” The real battle is against inertia and anxiety.
The Old Way: Feature Selling
“Our platform uses a Kubernetes architecture for 99.99% uptime and has 256-bit AES encryption…”
Result: The customer looks exhausted. Your brilliant solution is just more noise.
The Customer’s Reality
“Look, I just need to make sure my team doesn’t keep sending the wrong invoices to the wrong clients. That’s it.”
This is the simple, painful problem—the “Job to Be Done.”
The Physics of Progress: 4 Forces
Customers don’t buy products; they “hire” them to make progress. A purchase only happens when the forces for change overpower the forces resisting it.
1. Push of the Situation
The struggling moment. The current reality is painful enough to warrant action. “I can’t take another meeting with the wrong numbers.”
2. Pull of the New Solution
The magnetic vision of the future. The dream of “a single dashboard where everyone sees the same reality in real-time.”
3. Habit of the Present
The magnetic pull of the status quo. “Our current spreadsheet is a mess, but it’s *our* mess. We know its quirks.”
4. Anxiety of the New
The fear of the unknown. “What if the team hates it? What if the data migration is a disaster? What if I fail?”
Case Study: The ‘InnovateCRM’ Turnaround
A feature-rich CRM with stalling growth was losing to “no decision.” They stopped pitching and started listening. Here’s what happened.
The Shift: From Demos to “JTBD Interviews”
They stopped asking “what features do you want?” and started asking “take me back to the moment you realized your current system wasn’t working.”
The Insight: Uncovering the Real “Job”
The job wasn’t ‘to manage customer relationships.’ It was ‘to create a single source of truth so our client-facing teams stop looking disorganized and amateurish during critical client meetings.’
The Marketing Transformation
Their audience changed from ‘VPs of Sales’ to ‘Leaders terrified of losing their biggest client due to an unforced internal error.’ The campaign became “Present a United Front.”
The Results
- Sales cycle shortened by 30%.
- Win-rate against ‘no decision’ more than doubled.
- Average deal size increased by 15%.
- Product roadmap became laser-focused on solving real struggles.
Your Monday Morning Action Plan
Ready to apply these ideas? Don’t just think about it. Do it. Here are three simple steps to start your own “Jobs to Be Done” revolution.
1. Play “5 Whys” with Your Website
Pick a feature on your product page. Ask “so that…” five times. See how close you get to a real human motivation.
2. Autopsy a “No Decision” Deal
Draw the Four Forces on paper. What was really pushing them? What anxieties held them back? Be honest.
3. Find Your Real Battlefield
In your next team meeting, ask: “What are customers using if they’re *not* using a product like ours?” List the messy workarounds. That’s your competition.