What if…you knew what your customers will demand from you?
Over the next 5 years customers will demand that their suppliers possess a greater understanding of their needs.
These are the powerful predictions of 82 per cent of the world’s business leaders who took part in an IBM poll. Seventy per cent of them said customers will expect new and different services – and 88 per cent identified “getting closer to the customer” as the most important factor in achieving their 5 year strategies.
In light of this, I challenge you – in my role of executive coach – to tell me how much you really know about your customers?
I also challenge you as a strategy consultant to give me a detailed description of your average customer so I could pick them out in a crowded bar, shop or restaurant. Can your sales and customer service teams also do this?
Being the market leader doesn’t happen by accident. The reason why Unilevers became the world’s top producer of toilet soap brands was because they really understood their customers.
As a young budding marketer in the 1960s I recall how Dr Eddie Schultz, a leading Unilevers market researcher published “The Bathing Habits of the North British”.
The research described in minutiae detail the who, what, why, when and how of toilet soap usage in households in the north of England and Scotland along with regional differences. The findings opened up a whole new world of opportunities to me because they articulated the most intimate details of customers of each brand – and what the brand meant to them.
To get ahead in today’s tough marketplace, I challenge you to do 3 things in the next 90 days:
- See how much you can learn about your customers – not just who they are and where they live and work – but what makes them tick
- Find out what they value about doing business with your company
- Discover how you can improve what you deliver for them
You will experience those electric ‘light bulb’ moments by investing the time in meeting, listening and finding out about their respective business journeys in the next five years. You will also discover the true meaning of “getting closer to the customer” and “customer intimacy”.
To discuss how I can help you to make this a reality, contact me on email at richard.bosworth@whatifspecialist.com, follow @richardwhatif on Twitter or find me under Richard Bosworth at LinkedIn.
