Learning About Your Customers
Here's a great quote from the Boston Consulting Group:
By now, everyone knows that giving the customer what he or she wants is critical to success. But if everyone is doing this, where is the competitive advantage? The answer is in going one step further and deeper. This means knowing your most important customers' business systems so well that you see opportunities before they do and are able to provide some useful ideas. When you serve your customers by helping them discover untapped potential in their businesses, you both reap the rewards.
Michael J. Silverstein and Philip Siegel in The Boston Consulting Group On Strategy
It doesn't matter if you're B2B or B2C, the principle is the same: Discovery is the process of finding opportunities to serve the customer. Yes, it entails asking your customers what they want, but it's not so simple. It goes further—true discovery is learning where they want to go and helping them get there by means they hadn't even considered.
Henry Ford said, "If I had asked my customers what they wanted, they would have said a faster horse." Well, we think engaging with your customers is critical. But listening with the intention of true discovery (beyond the words) is where you'll find the greatest reward.
Silverstein and Siegel powerfully conclude:
You can choose to be "just" a vendor. You can submit proposals to specifications. You can play golf and entertain. You can focus on friendships. You can win some, you can lose some.
Or you can learn about your customers' vulnerabilities, dreams, business-process blocks, decision-making weaknesses, and major growth targets. You can grow with luck or you can grow through knowledge and innovation.
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