Lisa Pfister Product Launch Consultant

Posts Tagged ‘market intelligence’

Finding the key to your customer’s heart is not some big illusive strategy. For that matter finding the key to unlocking anyone’s heart is really not a formidable task. It’s really quite simple.

There are two simple steps. Pay close attention here so you don’t miss them.

Step one: ask. Step two: listen.

Got that?

How do you know what your prospect wants if you’ve never asked them?

Think of it this way. You’ve been craving a big juicy burger and a cold beer all day. You put in more than a full day at the office, you worked out, you’ve been good all week – you deserve it! You finally get to the restaurant and without asking to take your order, the waitress brings you a big salad and a glass of sparkling water. She smiles proudly because she knows she’s giving you the best thing possible to ensure good health and long life. She’s happy in the knowledge that she served your best interests. She’s giving you what she feels is best for you without taking the time to consult with you.

Isn’t this EXACTLY what we do when we give our customers what we THINK they want? We assume they want “X” because we never took the time to ask. This is especially true in online businesses where we have fewer opportunities to have “face time” with our prospects and customers, but don’t fool yourself offliners – you’re often just as guilty. Maybe you’re spending time with people but how valuable is your interaction?

By surveying your prospects and customers you really get to uncover what it is they want, how they want to get it and how much they value it. So you get killer marketing information, but the beauty of it all is that you do so much more. You cement your relationship. When you take the time to speak directly with your prospects and customers, they feel you care about them , they feel important, they feel connected. Oh, there’s one more offshoot of this – this is such an invigorating feeling to you, the business owner. When people start to share how they feel about you, and about you taking the time with them it adds rocket fuel to your own excitement and commitment to them and all of your customers.

I recently had this feeling. My partner and I got on the phone and each interviewed about 60 of our customers. The market intelligence was fantastic. We got to learn what their biggest frustrations in their business lives were, we learned how they wanted us to solve their problems and we learned what they valued and why they valued it. They created a new product for us by defining their needs. They sold a new product for us by giving us the words to use to promote it. They did the heavy lifting.

Obviously this is all good, but it what’s the best part of it for me personally?  I got to talk to the people I had been serving for years in a truly meaningful way. We both blocked time off in our schedules and sometimes the conversations got pretty deep and very personal. They appreciated the fact that the owner, not some survey company, thought enough of them to spend time learning their wants and needs. I appreciated the fact that my customers, mostly high powered executives, chose to spend their few minutes of “spare time” telling me how I could serve them better. It was a real honor. Without exception I think we both felt that way at the end of our talks.

I hope I’ve made a compelling case to survey your customers. There’s nothing like it for market intelligence, sales copy, product creation and perhaps most importantly – bonding between you and your customers.

Now that you know that it’s important in the next blog post  I’ll share some strategies on how to conduct surveys so you too, can attain these results.