The Third Victory

Many of you may be aware of Proctor and Gambles two points of success... (1) when the consumer purchases their product, and (2) when the consumer decides to purchase it again.

It's a brilliant and simple system for determining and defining success. And as I've stated many times before... it's almost more important to define success than it is to have success.

Consider the first success point... when the consumer purchases the product. We all know the experience of standing at Wal-Mart and trying to decide which item to purchase. Many of us are looking for value, function, longevity, etc. But once it's all said and done there is always one product that reigns victorious. That one product safely finds itself in your shopping card heading for a new home with you.

Now consider the second success point... when the consumer decides to purchase the product again. We all take that product home, analyze it's effectiveness and the value it provides for us, we will call that the items utility. That utility has a value to us personally and if that utility is high enough then we'll make a point to purchase that product again.

In any area of work we all have those two points of success, be it product sales, consulting, program development, etc. I believe the Proctor and Gamble model is ideal and great to challenge us all.

But I would like to challenge this model by adding a third success point.

I believe that the third victory is when a consumer becomes an advocate for a product and they beginning selling the product for you.

Picture this... you've successfully caught someone's attention, you've successfully make them a loyal consumer... not what if they become an advocate for your product.

The challenge here is that many of our resources might be better spent toward the third success point than the first. Yes, there's benefit to draw in new people; but what if we effort ourselves more to make advocates of our product (because our product is quality) and allow those loyal consumers feed the first success point.

All in all, it's quality and stewardship again. The quality of the product and the stewardship of treating people well and providing the best possible solution. In the end, that's what makes our consumer and clients most satisfied with our work.

Challenge: Think through what it would take to make someone an advocate and not just a consumer of your product.

Respond: How have you guided someone to become an advocate? How do we make advocates of our product?