PREVIEW: Key Account Blueprinting New Product Blueprinting is the world’s leading B2B voice-of-customer methodology. It’s typically used to understand the needs of an entire market and leads to superior new product development for that market. But some clever Blueprinting users have applied the same interview methods to one large account at a time. This is ... Read More
Preview: Everyday VOC You can turn your sales force into a learning force with Everyday VOC. When they probe deeply and capture customer needs uniformly in your CRM, you’ll gain unprecedented market insight. And they’ll sell more. Your B2B customers have a long list of problems to be solved. But it’s not their job to ... Read More
Preview: Commercialize Technology Perhaps your company’s engineers or scientists have developed some cool new technology. But can you commercialize it? And if you can, how long will it take to find the right market for it? If your company struggles to commercialize technology today, try these six steps. Step 1. Separate your jungle animals and ... Read More
Preview: Design Thinking for B2B If you develop new products, a design thinking process can help. All the more so if you’re a B2B innovator: You can upgrade the most important parts of design-thinking in ways consumer goods developers can only wish for. But you must do steps 1 (Empathize) and 2 (Define) differently for ... Read More
Preview: B2B vs B2C B2B professionals have advantages their B2C counterparts can only wish for. When you fully grasp 12 B2B vs B2C differences, you’ll know how to excel at understanding and meeting customer needs. And this is the key to organic growth. When you consider B2B vs B2C, which market profession has greater advantages? ... Read More
Preview: New Innovation Metrics You need leading indicators to drive your new-product innovation forward… not watch it in the rear-view mirror. With two new innovation metrics, you’ll build growth capabilities and ensure you understand customer needs. Today, the most commonly used innovation metric is the vitality index: percentage of revenue from products launched in the ... Read More
Preview: Virtual VOC (VVOC) Some companies dismiss web-conference voice-of-customer interviews because in-person interviews are “better.” Sure, meeting with someone in-person is indeed the gold standard: A 2-hour in-person interview is usually superior to a 2-hour virtual VOC (VVOC) interview. But what if you spent ten hours of travel for the in-person interview and zero hours ... Read More
Preview: Market Satisfaction Gaps Can one simple change drive unprecedented organic growth from your new product pipeline? This upgrade only works if you are making the same blunder as most B2B companies today…. one that future B2B innovators will surely avoid. Here’s the test to see if you “qualify” for this upgrade: Do your development-stage ... Read More
Preview: Lean Startup Cyclefor B2B: Applying Build-Measure-Learn to Innovation “Build measure learn”, a cycle of improvement from operational science, is applied to innovation within the “Lean Startup” method. Most B2B suppliers can do even more with a critical adjustment seldom needed for consumer products. So before you begin showing customers minimum viable products, be sure ... Read More
Preview: Innovating in Unfamiliar Markets: How to De-risk Transformational Projects Does your company pursue bold, transformational projects… or does it pursue incrementalism? Does it try to enter unfamiliar markets… or “play it safe” in the same old market segments? We know that some high-performing companies benefit greatly from transformational projects. They seem to be able ... Read More
Preview: Timing is Everything: Exposing Deep Flaws in B2B Innovation Today How’s your com¬pany’s timing when it comes to applying your B2B innovation to new products and services? Your answers to three “timing tests” will reveal much about your current innovation maturity level: Whose ideas do you start with… yours or your customers’? When do ... Read More
Preview: Catch the Innovation Wave… with the New Science of B2B Customer Insight The Innovation Wave will differ from earlier Quality and Productivity Waves: A new science of B2B customer insight will ensure profitable, sustainable growth for some B2B companies. If you could wish one thing for your company, what would it be? Many would ... Read More
Preview: Guessing at Customer Needs What are the chances your product development teams understand B2B customer needs well enough to set the right new-product objectives? Picture a six-sided die with one “Yes” and five “No’s,” and you’ve got your answer. How do we know this? The AIM Institute studied 50 new product development teams from ... Read More