Nobody Searches for Products Anymore. They Search for Outcomes.
Search is shifting from products to outcomes: buyers will stop researching coffee machines and start telling an AI that already knows them to just solve for great coffee. This video breaks down what that changes on both sides of the transaction — how you buy software internally, and why leading with your product instead of the outcome stops working.
Transcript
There is something that is so hyper-fundamental in this new world of AI that you must understand today, because it's going to change the way we acquire, the way we purchase things, how we think about what we want to purchase — and therefore how companies are selling to us and marketing to us. So if you're on either side of the coin, it's incredibly critical to understand that we are moving to an outcomes-oriented search mindset.
What does that mean, practically speaking? Before, if I wanted great coffee in the morning, I thought to myself: well, what do I need to get there? I need a coffee machine. So I'd research coffee machines. What beans do I need? I've got to go through this whole process — go research it, Google it, search on Amazon, look at ratings.
The future is different. The future is me going into my AI that already knows me — knows my budget, my purchasing habits, et cetera, has an idea at least. And I say: I need coffee three times a week. I need it to be strong. This is the type of coffee I like. Figure it out for me.
And when you're acquiring software, it's the same thing. How often do we have a problem in our team, or somewhere in the organization, where it's like — well, I've got a problem with the sales org, so what I'm going to do is buy X, Y, and Z software. Well, who says that's even the way to solve this problem? You've got to start with the outcome, get detailed in the outcome that you want, and then reverse your way back into the best full picture of how to solution for it. You may even be in the wrong direction altogether. You're buying a CRM, or whatever it is, but you don't need a CRM — you just need to optimize your process.
That holistic mindset, that holistic point of view, is going to become way more apparent. And when we talk to our clients and we're selling to them, we're going to have to be cognizant of that, because we won't be able to operate the way we were — assuming they're coming for our product. They're driving outcomes. Our presence at large has to be the outcome, and how we work holistically to present a full picture of how we're solving their problem.
And if you like this message — which is super critical, because it's going to change literally everything in the next few years of sales and marketing, even how we go to Google — we're going to change the whole experience of how we shop and where we shop. Like this message and share it, because it's a critical AI message.
