by Bob Miller, Founder, Miller Heiman
The conventional wisdom:
“Build it and they will come. In other words, the right product will sell itself.”
The reality:
“Even the best product in the world will fail if customers don’t understand and appreciate the value it can provide.”
If you’re a baseball fan, “Field of Dreams” is probably one of your favorite movies. Starring Kevin Costner, it’s a moving story about the beauty of redemption - how some people, most notably the disgraced ballplayer, Shoeless Joe Jackson, can be given a second chance in life. But the movie’s iconic line – “If you build it, he will come” (“it” being a baseball field and “he” being Jackson) – has become the mantra of many salespeople who mistakenly believe that all they need to be successful is for their company to build the right products. If only business were that simple! Even the best offerings never sell themselves. In fact, the failure rate for new products is notoriously high, often topping 50 percent.
What Do Customers Really Want?
Proving the value of your products to customers might seem like a straightforward concept, but it’s surprisingly difficult to implement. It requires figuring out exactly what your customers value in the first place. Many companies have been led astray by market research that asks customers, “Would you like features A, B, and C?” Then those businesses build products with A, B, and C only to see those items languish on the store shelf. Why? Because desire doesn’t always translate into action. Although customers might say they want A, B, and C, that doesn't necessarily mean they’ll be willing to pay for those features. That’s why you need to regularly check your assumptions of the market by incorporating data from a variety of sources, including customer-satisfaction surveys, market research, customer feedback, and information from employees who regularly deal with customers, including salespeople.
A huge danger with such information, though, is that companies often mistakenly believe that all they need to do is to satisfy their customers. That assumption can be disastrous. Consider a research study that investigated the behavioral differences between customers who said they were “satisfied” versus those who said they were “completely satisfied.” The study found that there’s a world of difference in loyalty between those two types of customers. Xerox, for instance, discovered that customers who are totally satisfied are six times more likely to buy from the company again over the next 18 months than customers who are just satisfied.
Consequently, you should not be lulled into complacency just because the results of a survey say your customers are “satisfied.” The question then becomes how do you totally (instead of merely) satisfy customers so they continue buying from you? Not surprisingly, that same study found that companies need to deliver the expected product and provide basic support services. In addition, two things must happen: A.) put processes in place to handle and counteract bad customer experiences and B.) provide solutions that excel in meeting customer needs or solving their problems such that the customers believe the product or service is tailored to them.
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