B2B Organic Growth Blog

I love it when our clients have cool technology and clever ideas. But don’t mention these to customers during VOC interviews. From the customer’s perspective, the interview should look exactly the same whether or not you’ve got a great hypothesis. Give your hypothesis the silent treatment for now. Simply listen to the customer.

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

Why do people really buy what they buy? It’s a question that has reshaped how we think about customers, markets, and innovation. Thanks to the foundational work of Clayton Christensen, Tony Ulwick, Bob Moesta, and Lance Bettencourt, Jobs-to-be-Done (JTBD) theory gave us a breakthrough insight: “Customers don’t buy products—they hire them to get jobs done.” ... Read More

Strong intermediate (vs. ultimate) innovation metrics share these qualities: 1. Insightful: They help firms understand relationships between cause and effect. 2. Predictive: They measure behavior that will foretell ultimate success. 3. Actionable: Their short “feedback loop” allows rapid adjustments to be made. Are you using such metrics?

More in white paper, New Innovation Metrics

Sure, the most important practice is understanding customer needs. But most overlooked? Few suppliers ask customers 1) for the most important, unsatisfied outcomes, 2) what test methods measure these outcomes, and 3) how satisfied customers are by various test results. Without these questions, you cannot properly assess competing alternatives.

More in growth video #36, Benchmark competing alternatives

If any process in your company should be customer-driven, it should be the one developing products for customers, right? So try this at your next review: Ask team members how many hours they spent talking to customers… and how many hours talking internally. You may be surprised at how little time was spent understanding customer needs.

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

If you ask B2B customers the right questions, you can replicate their experience within your operation. Learn which outcomes they care about, which test methods simulate those outcomes, and how much satisfaction would be delivered by any test result. Do this properly and you’ll know how they’ll react before they react.

More in white paper, Catch the Innovation Wave (page 11)

Business leaders focused on the short term are just showing up. They compete for market share this year, hit the reset button, and repeat the process next year. No serious, long-term capability-building. Count yourself fortunate if you compete against such companies. They’re easy to beat with the right time horizon.

More in the book, Business Builders, Chapter 9

Imagine you’re planning to build a new home: Your architect sees you for half an hour, spends the first 15 minutes talking about sports, and then shows you pictures of other houses he designed. Later, when the house fails to please you, he dismisses it saying, “Well that buyer just didn’t know what he wanted.” Ever treat customers this way?

More in white paper, Guessing at Customer Needs

Here’s what to include: 1) Business status: You’ll need a refresher on all aspects of your current dealings with this customer, 2) Company news: You don’t want to be surprised by their new acquisition, divestiture, VP, etc. 3) Market trends: You’ll be able to engage your customer more deeply if you’re conversant in the trends they’re facing, 4) Common problems: If your customer brings up one of these problems, you’ll be prepared to discuss it, and 5) Process steps: This lets you explore steps you could help them to accomplish faster, better or cheaper.

More in white paper, Sales Call Preparation with AI

Most of their thinking goes into adjusting their hardhats. Too bad: Tour insights provide great context for interviews… and your “fresh eyes” may yield ideas for improvement. You might see what everyone else has seen, but think what no one else has thought. You just need to learn the proper skills to do this.

More in 2-minute growth video #33, Conduct B2B customer tours