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How do you know what customers really want? This is an
extremely important question--and unfortunately, one that
most people say they want to know and yet are unable to
accurately obtain the answers. The most basic way to obtain
this information is to simply ask.... With a little effort,
you can get most customers and prospects to simply tell
you what they want most.
"My customers are too busy." "They'll never speak with
us." "They can't be bothered with this." These are the types
of responses I often receive when I tell my clients that
I am going to spend between 1-2 hours with each of their
customers to find the answer to the question "What do our
customers really need--and what are they willing to pay
for?" Yet, I am almost always able to obtain an audience
with people at all levels-- even CEOs. The cost of gathering
information during these 1-on-1 interviews is minimal, yet
the value of the insight is priceless.
This article describes why customers will want to speak
with you as you ask them what they want, need, and critically--
what they are willing to pay for. Subsequent articles will
discuss the methodologies for gathering this business-critical
knowledge from your customers and prospects as well as translating
it into revenue- generating strategies and tactics.
WIIFM (Whats In It For Me)?
This is the $64,000 question. "What's in it for me?"
Everyone is busy--but everyone also has a point at which
they can adjust priorities when the value offered outweighs
the challenge of rescheduling these priorities. When you
have an answer to this question, you can spend as much time
with customers and prospects as you provide value.
In general, customers (and especially consumers of your
products/services) are typically interested in product improvements
to make their lives easier, their process smoother, etc.
If you can offer the (reliable) promise that products or
services will improve as a result of spending an hour talking
with you, they'll usually bite.
Prospects are a different story. They do not have a vested
interest in furthering your product. You may want to consider
offering an incentive for participating, such as a $50-$100
AMEX gift certificate, depending on the level of the contact.
One company I worked with offered a $250 certificate to
C-level executives willing to spend 1.5 hours being interviewed
on the phone. For lower levels, you can offer smaller denominations
with the same effect.
When making the appointment, the key thing to remember
is that you are not making a sales call--you are seeking
to learn more about them and their problems. As such, you
must focus on their needs, not yours. You will find that
an intro along the lines of "We're attempting to better
understand your needs" is much more well received than "We
need you to spend 1/2 hour with us..."
What to Ask?
Too many people ask "You like this, don't you?!" The key
to success is to ask open-ended questions that encourage
people to explain and expound, rather than simply agree
with you!
First, identify the key issues that you need resolved.
For a redesign of an existing product, you may want to focus
on how well the product meets customer needs. For a new
product, you may want to spend time exploring how a prospect
is presently functioning in the absence of your product.
You may decide that customer service is the key issue and
focus attention on customer expectations, gaps between reality
and expectations, etc.
Given a couple of key issues to explore, I typically write
down all the problems I need to find answers for, and then
create open-ended questions to draw out the answers. For
example, if I want to know who is the ultimate decision-maker,
I'll ask, "Tell me about your buying process--what happens
when someone decides to purchase a product (similar to ours)?"
To uncover specific operating system requirements (ie. Windows
2000 vs. XP), I'll ask "What is the most common OS in use?"
or "What are your OS migration plans for the next year?"
By using these general questions, you can ensure that you
obtain real answers and avoid putting ideas into people's
heads.
Create an Interview Guide. Organize each of the previously
identified questions into groups by topic and in order from
general to specific. You may find it helpful to make a note
near each question of the specific "pain" you are attempting
to uncover with the question. You can use this Interview
Guide to direct your interviews, helping you to create a
solid, professional impression.
Whom to Approach?
The customers and prospects you contact are dependent upon
the type of information you need to gather, as defined in
your interview guide. If you are gathering info primarily
about buying processes, you want to make appointments with
the decision makers themselves, rather than recommenders.
If you are seeking to learn about how people use software,
you want to seek out end users or those who may have direct
contact with your products.
One company I worked with did an excellent job of understanding
their prospective customers and developed the perfect solution
for economic buyers. After deployment, the end users found
the software to be cumbersome--and didn't adopt their software.
Thus, it is important to choose the correct audiences for
the interviews.
To prepare yourself to obtain the most priceless advice
from those whom you contact, start with internal advocates
such as sales people, field engineers, tech support, etc.
Doing so will help you refine your questions to identify
the most critical insight to gather. From there, visit the
"Friendly foes"--current customers who are well satisfied
with your products. Move to the "Neutral Zone" by contacting
prospective customers that sales teams have not yet approached.
After each interview, refine the Interview Guide to get
at the most critical information and convey competence in
the area. Finally, move to the most difficult territory
by contacting companies wherein a sales deal was lost or
even by contacting competitor's customers. When you have
conducted a number of interviews and the issues you hear
are essentially the same, you have enough data to begin
working.
Using this approach, you will obtain real customer insight--the
kind you can bet your business on. Using this insight, you
will have a real competitive advantage based on solid products
and services you KNOW customers want, need, and are willing
to pay for.
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