B2B Organic Growth Blog

It’s usually a sign the new-product team has a supplier-centric mindset, not a customer-centric one. Validating hypotheses is converging around a supplier solution… which should occur after diverging around customer needs. It’s important to get the sequence right. Look around and study Problem Solving 101: Divergent thinking nearly always precedes convergent thinking.

More in 2-minute growth video #21, Give your hypotheses the silent treatment

I worked in manufacturing in the 1970s, when it seemed like “overkill” to train operators in statistics for quality control. But this is expected today. I met Dr. Deming in the 1980’s and heard him say, “It is not necessary to change. Survival is optional.”  Compared to statistics, the science of B2B customer insight is quite simple. Will you be GM or Toyota in the innovation wave?

More in white paper, Catch the Innovation Wave (page 12)

Key account managers have a HARD job: Members of the customer buying team are… HIDDEN (the person saying “no” may be completely unknown), ABUNDANT (on average, 5.4 people are involved in B2B buying decisions), RELUCTANT (stakeholders believe they’re “too busy to meet with a salesperson”), and DISAGREEING (they have different perspectives on what is needed). To overcome this, try Key Account Blueprinting… New Product Blueprinting applied to one large account at a time.

More in white paper, Key Account Blueprinting

I call this the golden rule of investment. In the case of innovation, it explains why the front-end-of-innovation is the critical battleground. The winning company is the one that most efficiently learns whatever intelligence is needed to drive this important decision: “Should we advance this project into the costly development stage?”

More in e-book, Supercharge your Stage-Gate® process

Is your new product pipeline filled with blockbusters destined to amaze customers and drive profitable growth for you? Or is it filled with twaddle… incremental innovation aimed at “guessed” market needs? With AI as your pipe wrench, these 3 steps will unclog your pipeline. Then your best new products will flow freely. In our experience, ... Read More

Many think new product pricing is determined by how much value a supplier delivers to customers… but that’s not strictly true. Pricing is driven by customers’ perception of value delivered. Therefore, you need to give prospective buyers a value calculator or similar tool, so they can see how much money they’ll make or save.

More in 2-minute growth video #34, Use value calculators to establish pricing

B2B producers often take a DIY approach, while B2C marketers hire research firms. Why? For one thing, consumer products often have bigger annual revenues: Think of all the small B2B parts in a big-ticket item like a smart phone. For B2C it’s all about that launch. But B2B companies often “turn the crank” on many smaller new products… so it’s economical to develop in-house expertise.

More in 2-minute growth video #32, When to use “hired guns” for VOC

One of the most powerful things you can do in New Product Blueprinting is to slow down and visualize how customers actually get their work done.This technique is called Outcome Mapping, a structured way to trace a customer’s job step by step, in their own words, and without reference to any product or tool. If ... Read More

It would seem obvious that new product development should be focused on those who will pay for these products: customers. It would seem. Yet B2B suppliers routinely pursue their own ideas, concepts and hypotheses, paying too little attention to market needs too late. True customer-centric innovation is a completely different mindset.

More in e-book, Reinventing VOC for B2B

Professional interviewers can be helpful at times… but ultimately, customer insight skills are a competitive edge your company should own. Your B2B customers want to talk to the people who will innovate on their behalf… not some note-taking middlemen. And there’s nothing quite like hearing new customer insights first-hand, is there?

More in 2-minute growth video #32, When to use “hired guns” for VOC