B2B Organic Growth Blog

Surprises in quality or cost control are unpleasant. But innovation relies on surprises. Without “non-obviousness,” an invention cannot even be patented. When a previously hidden customer outcome becomes known, the discovering supplier has the luxury of seeking solutions in a competition-free environment.

More in 2-minute growth video #25, Let your customers surprise you

The appearance of a product is a pivotal factor in its success for several reasons. Firstly, it’s often the first point of interaction between the product and the consumer. A product’s look can communicate its quality, usability, and the brand’s values. A compelling design in a market saturated with options can make a product stand ... Read More

The research on B2B sales call preparation isn’t encouraging: 75% of B2B executive buyers say salespeople are not knowledgeable about their business… and do not understand the issues they face.  Unsurprisingly, only one in four salespeople get agreement from these buyers to meet again.  AI can help salespeople prepare in two ways: 1) rapid pre-call customer reports, and 2) role-playing their conversations with an AI agent.

More in white paper, Sales Call Preparation with AI

Neither will customers pay you for a product they don’t need. I call this new-product failure mode, “Nice shot, wrong target.” It is far too common. Most customers really do have something “broken” that needs fixed. Figure out what this is before you design your next new product, and they’ll pay you handsomely.

More in white paper, Guessing at Customer Needs

Some products deliver enormous profits for decades, carrying whole businesses and careers on their sturdy shoulders. And then there are the tired, the poor, the huddled masses of wretched new products you wish were on your competitors’ teeming shores. The most popular way to fail is guessing at customer needs.

More in white paper, Guessing at Customer Needs

One is throwing more money at R&D in a Soviet-style arms race. Another is exhorting the troops to do better. An all-time favorite is asking tough project-review questions… but not training teams in the skills needed to find the answers. What if all your teams had the highest possible skills in understanding customer needs? Might this work better?

More in e-book, Reinventing VOC for B2B

Ever watch stage-gate reviews or entire workshops wrestling with The Value Proposition? It’s not pretty. In my experience, good B2B customer interviews yield potential value propositions like so many ripe apples falling from a tree. You just need to pick which to pursue. If you need to dream up value propositions, you’re climbing the wrong tree.

More in white paper, Guessing at Customer Needs

Does your operating plan call for profitable growth in 2025? How will you achieve it? You could use your old playbook… or employ AI, arguably the biggest game-changer in decades. Let’s look at four ways to use AI for growth-driving competitive advantage. You can use AI to boost efficiency or effectiveness. Said another way, you ... Read More

Instead, ask the right questions about your customer’s problems. The consultative selling movement was given a major boost in 1988 with Neil Rackham’s ground-breaking research in SPIN Selling. By observing more than 35,000 sales calls, they established that the most successful salespeople ask great questions. Decades later, we had our own question: Are some questions more likely to drive sales? (The answer is “yes”!) We surveyed 396 B2B sales professionals with over 6,000 years of combined experience concerning 12 voice-of-customer skills.

Download AIM Institute research report, VOC Skills that Drive B2B Sales

Confirmation bias is the “tendency for people to favor information that confirms their preconceptions or hypotheses, regardless of whether the information is true.” It’s what happens when you take your lovely new-product hypotheses to customers. This systematically distorts data on customer needs… and that can’t be good for innovation, right?

More in 2-minute video at 35. Insist on data-driven innovation