What are you really buying?

In their book Challenger Customer, the authors tell a story of dentists who were presented a cordless drill to replace their old-school and traditional corded drills. Features and function, bells and whistles were presented by the vendor. The dentist were not buying it. They were satisfied with the status quo even though they loved the new drills.

The story told talks about how the vendor shifted away from presenting the features of the drills and instead focused on desired business outcomes of the dentists. But they didn't stop there. They went a few levels below the desired outcomes and started to poke holes in what the dentists believed they needed to do to achieve their objectives.

The objective was profitability for the dental practice. The hole poked was Hygienists health and the impact to profitability when Hygienists left the practice for health reasons.  The main health reason was carpal tunnel syndrome, a major cause being corded drills. All the sudden dentists started buying cordless drills.

They were not buying the drills. They were buying the reduction in Hygienist turnover to neutralize a massive source of revenue leakage. They were buying a change in the driver of success. They were buying the ability to optimize the profit of their business. The drill just became an enabler of that success.

How would you determine the business outcomes of any B2B solution you want to purchase?