More specifically, it’s learning what you didn’t know about the customer’s world in your target market. If you think it’s about “ideating” to come up with cool supplier ideas—which you’ll “validate” with customers—you’ve got it all wrong. Start with customers and their needs… not with you and your notions. Focus on your solutions after you understand what those who might buy them want.
Learn more about B2B innovation at www.newproductblueprinting.com
It can be a challenge to recruit customers for VOC. The reasons for customer reluctance to interviews are murky. Perhaps heavier workloads, interview fatigue, tighter corporate policies or skepticism created by research requests that become sales calls. Regardless of the cause, these four strategies can help: Reduce the Number of Customers to Recruit for VOC ... Read More
In Level 1, you start with your ideas and launch products you think customers will want. In Level 2, you still start with your ideas, but “validate” them with customers. In Level 3, you start with customer needs, using divergent and convergent interviews. You uncover a full range of outcomes and only work on those customers care about.
Watch 2-min video, Immerse Your Team in Customer Outcomes
AI can deliver key elements of a pre-call plan in a flash: 1) Business status: a refresher on all aspects of your current business dealings with this customer. 2) Company news: You don’t want to be surprised by their new acquisition, divestiture, or VP. 3) Market trends: You’ll engage your customer more deeply if you’re conversant in trends they face. 4) Common problems: Be prepared to discuss their challenges. 5) Process steps: Study all the steps your customer goes through when using your type of offering. This lets you explore areas you could help them accomplish faster, better or cheaper.
Download the white paper, Sales Call Preparation with AI
If you focus on unimportant outcomes, customers will greet your new product with a collective yawn. If you satisfy outcomes competitors already meet, customers will greet you with a phone call requesting lower prices. How long will this take them? This depends on whether they have you on speed dial. How do you focus on important, unmet needs? Use Market Satisfaction Gaps.
Watch 2-min video, Quantitative Interviews are a Must
DISCOVER, a new book by Scott Burleson, is now available. Its full subtitle is From Customer Noise to Product Signal: A Jobs-to-Be-Done Guide to Customer Interviews and Product Insight. The book is now available on Amazon in Kindle, paperback, and hardcover formats. DISCOVER is best understood as complementary to Blueprinting. It begins with the same ... Read More
When you launch a product, do customers instantly begin buying? Or do they need months of deliberation? Start them deliberating well before your launch with engaging interviews and follow-up. Customers will help you make course corrections for a better new product… and when you’re ready to sell, they’ll be ready to buy much faster.
Watch 2-min video, Engage your B2B Customers
The research on B2B sales call preparation isn’t encouraging: 75% of B2B executive buyers say salespeople are not knowledgeable about their business… and don’t understand the issues they face. Unsurprisingly, only one in four salespeople get agreement from these buyers to meet again. With help from AI, B2B salespeople can now prepare quickly and thoroughly.
Download the white paper, Sales Call Preparation with AI
The term “B2B” is useful, because business customers can be so different than end-consumers. But it’s a blunt and imprecise term, and we can do better. Check out the “B2B Index” developed by The AIM Institute. The higher your market’s B2B Index, the greater you can engage customers… in both early-stage and late-stage marketing. (This is a free service.)
Calculate your B2B Index at www.b2bmarketview.com
Guided AI is democratizing secondary market research, making it accessible to engineers, scientists and other B2B professionals. It will completely change who does the research, why they do it, and how often. Early adopters will penetrate adjacent markets and develop new products faster and better. Let’s see how. In the pre-AI age, most B2B secondary ... Read More
Imagine a fellow on a date who just talks about himself for an hour. His only questions are, “What’s your income? What’s your educational level?” Then he closes with, “Will you marry me?” Does this sound like an old-fashioned “qualify-and-then-close” sales call? As with a good date, you should be genuinely interested in your customer and their needs.
Watch 5-min video, Reinventing VOC for B2B
Your CRM will never reach its full potential until three steps perform well. AI can now help all three… often in unexpected ways. 1) Move needs from customers’ brains into your salesperson’s brain using expert probing. 2) Move these needs from the salesperson’s brain into your CRM. 3) Use advanced AI (now built into all CRMs) to mine your database to create market foresight.
Download the white paper, Transform Your CRM with AI
You’re probably familiar with VOC for innovation. B2B suppliers use methods like New Product Blueprinting to understand market needs before developing their new products. The “other” type is Everyday VOC®. This acknowledges your company has thousands of customer interactions every year which shouldn’t be wasted. All your customer-facing staff—sales, marketing, technical service—use B2B-optimized probing to truly understand customer needs. Every day.
Download white paper, Everyday VOC
Many B2B suppliers consider competitive pricing as they plan new-product pricing. Or worse, cost-plus pricing. Both are irrelevant if you deliver real value to customers… not a “me-too” product. Competitive pricing just helps you judge initial customer reaction, and cost-plus just sets the pricing floor. Neither tells you what customers will pay. For that, you need customer-value pricing.
Watch 2-min video, Use Value Calculators to Establish Pricing.