Your sales force is a vital part of B2B voice-of-customer. But don't count on them doing this work by themselves or you’ll miss 4 objectives: 1) Concentration on a single market segment, 2) meeting with the right customer contacts, 3) using strong probing skills and tools, and 4) aggressive follow-through. ... Read More
Imagine your doctor entered the exam room, saying, “I’ll ask some routine questions to validate my hunch… so I can start treatment.” Would he be your doctor for long? Wouldn’t you rather have a doctor who listens first and asks intelligent questions? Your customers feel the same way, so leave your hypothesis in the waiting room and start engaging them.
More in 2-minute video at 29. Engage your B2B customers
Qualitative interviews are important, but if you don’t continue with quantitative interviews you may still struggle with new product innovation. Many B2B producers use AIM’s preference interviews to generate Market Satisfaction Gaps for customer outcomes. A Gap over 30% indicates the market segment is eager to see improvement. ... Read More
Do you like to answer surveys at home? How about at work? How do you think customers feel about filling in your questionnaire? Forget your list of brilliant questions. Instead, learn to brilliantly probe whatever customers want to tell you. You’ll be rewarded by customers who actually want to talk to you.
More in e-book, www.reinventingvocforb2b.com (page 2)
Portfolio management links strategy with execution for new product development. A Voice of the Customer program maximizes ROI for all new product initiatives, whether incremental or breakthrough. ... Read More
Analysis looks for what has been done wrong; discovery for what could be done right. Failing to discover opportunities is a costly error. Paradoxically, it is most often forgiven. In fact, if your team fails to develop a blockbuster because it missed a critical customer need, no one will even notice. At least not until a competitor does a better job. This is called an error of omission and it’s a serious problem for many B2B companies.
More in 2-minute video at 25. Let your customers surprise you
Modern “Jobs-to-be-Done” (JTBD) thinking began with the most popular HBR article ever written: Ted Levitt’s “Marketing Myopia.” It begins this way: “Every major industry was once a growth industry. But some that are not riding a wave of growth enthusiasm are very much in the shadow of decline. Others, which are thought of as seasoned ... Read More
What if you could turn B2B product development into a science? What if you searched for the causes of new product failures as you would for problems in chemical reactions or manufacturing steps? Now you can. We’ll use our “triple diamond” of NPD to examine all 6 steps you must do well to ensure success. ... Read More
In a concentrated market—where there are relatively few customers—B2B innovators should pursue customer engagement as well as market insight. Practical ways to do this include keeping customer objectives in the center, ensuring the interview process is a professional experience, and continuing to engage the customer after the interview. ... Read More
This AIM Institute article shows research by Dr. Robert Cooper explaining the power of voice-of-customer. Of 18 sources for new product idea, the 8 VOC methods studied took 8 out of the 9 spots in this survey of 150 firms. ... Read More
Congratulations! You’ve been promoted! On your first day as a new B2B exec, your company’s Director of Public Relations wants to chat. Something about a press release. She says you’ll want to address stockholder concerns. To provide hope despite the weak economy and sluggish sales. To give a reason to believe. A reason to have ... Read More
If you are using older voice-of-customer methods (e.g. DFSS or QFD), you’re sub-optimizing. For B2B your methods must achieve 3 goals: 1) collaborate deeply, 2) pre-sell your innovation, and 3) maximize “value capture.” Four B2B approaches are explored here. ... Read More
If we bring a prototype to a customer, this is “concept testing.” Something different from voice of the customer research. But when definitions are not understood, these become conflated and we fool ourselves into believing that we’re more customer-centric than we really are. This confusion results from how innovation and new product processes have evolved. ... Read More
This mantra guides the decisions of the business masses. But is it right? Peter Drucker didn’t think so. He said the primary purpose of a business is to acquire and keep customers. I believe increased shareholder value is a good result, but a lousy goal. You’ll have better results if your goal becomes: “Understand and meet the needs of our customers.”
More in 2-minute video at 5. Shareholder wealth is a poor goal