Don’t let your future be “that time you’ll wish you’d done what you’re not doing now.” You’ll be thankful later if you recalibrate your time horizon now… diverting some of your short-term attention to the future of your business. Besides, what you do this quarter is largely a spectator sport. The prices, profits and margins we wring our hands about during financial reviews were determined years ago by the new products created then for customers.
More in e-book, Leader’s Guide to B2B Organic Growth (Lesson 7)
Long ago, clever employees at your company developed industry-leading products. Most of your growth and profits today probably come from these sturdy product platforms. Don’t count on inherited growth continuing: Every year, purchasing agents and competitors are working diligently to commoditize your specialty products. Glad I could cheer you up on this.
Watch 2-min video, How Much Growth Did You Earn?
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
The #1 mandate for every business leader should be, “leave your business stronger than you found it.” Business Builders don’t cross a finish line by retiring. They pass a baton. Many businesses can accelerate their organic growth by simply stopping six harmful leadership practices, outlined in my book, Business Builders: How to Become an Admired and Trusted Corporate Leader.
Learn about the book, Business Builders
If you’re mainly concerned with making the place look good quarter after quarter, you’re a Decorator. Jeff Bezos was a Builder… running Amazon for seven years before turning a profit. The stock market still applauded him, because he had a building plan they could believe in. As Warren Buffet said, “Companies obtain the shareholder constituency that they seek and deserve.”
Learn about the book, Business Builders
How about knowing their response before they see it? B2B customers are so knowledgeable that you can model their behavior based on what you learn in customer interviews. Prototypes are still worthwhile—for refinement and engagement. But they’re far too expensive and time-consuming if you do them before conducting insightful B2B customer interviews.
Watch 2-min video, Benchmark Competing Alternatives
You can improve a process anywhere down the value chain, or you can improve the ultimate product. (Mid-stream products don’t count.) Equipment and service providers often have their biggest impact on processes. Component or material makers often have a larger impact on products. In either case, you need to pursue these improvements with passion.
More in e-book, Reinventing VOC for B2B (page 26)
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
