Social Entrepreneurs Should be more Like Sherlock

Sherlock Holmes is one of the most famous fictional detectives, whose story has been told and retold many times and in many different ways, but all of them focus on what he is renowned for, solving cases in both novel and deductive ways. For a social entrepreneur to make an impact they must have a product or service that solves a market problem that is currently being unmet.

The beginning of the PURPOSE marketing plan is to identify the problem, and develop a strong marketing problem statement. We can take some lessons from how Sherlock works to help us better identify and articulate the market problem we are trying to address.

Observe

Sherlock starts by taking in everything. As a social entrepreneur you need to be observant, which means to collect as much data as you can about your potential market, your potential customers and the challenges that they are having. You also need to be able to fully understand the social cause you are trying to address. This means spending time in your customers environment, and watching how they operate. This means reviewing as much data that you can get your hands on in order to understand your customers, behaviors and their motivating

Listen

Sherlock would talk to many people to understand all aspects of a case. Treat a marketing problem like a case that needs to be solved. You need to talk to many customers in your target market about the challenges that they are having. You can do this through surveys, you can spend time talking to them directly, you can listen to what they are saying through social media. Be as familiar as you can with your customer so that you can emphasize what they are going through. You need to ask them specifically what problems they are having and what they say they need.

What’s missing?

One of Sherlock’s most famous cases involved the absence of data that should be there. The case was solved because of a dog who didn’t bark. (I won’t spoil this one for any Sherlock fans who haven’t read it.) When you are listening and observing customers you also need to be aware of what information is not being presented that should be. What is the customer not saying or expressing that you would expect them to? What problems are they having that they can’t articulate?

Analyze

Sherlock was famous for spending hours locked in his study with his pipe while he pondered all of the data that he took in. He would mull over all of the facts, both stated and not stated, spoken and observed. All of the data were pieces that when put together would eventually lead him to the ultimate solution to the case. One of the best ways of doing this is to ask five whys. (Why does the customer have problem X. Because of Y. Why does Y occur? Because of Z. Why does Z happen?, etc.) The information and observation that we have collected will help us get to the root cause.

Deduce

Ultimately we are trying to get to the root cause of a client’s problem, and the root causes of a social issue so that we can find the best solution to address both. By getting to the root causes we can build better solutions to problems that customers didn’t realize that they had but were happy to have solved anyhow. Henry Ford is famous for saying that if you asked what people wanted, they would have said a faster horse. But by understanding the root problem better solutions can be devised.

Interested in more? You can read more here: http://impactassured.com/blog/blog-single-author-big/