Before you develop it…
I was talking to a client the other day who was complaining that his company had invested time and money in rolling out two new products to their customers, only to see no significant interest in these products. He was confused since in conversations with a few salespeople he was under the impression that these products would be of value to their customer base. While he certainly had seen some interest in the new products, given the amount of investment, he would have expected much more based on what his salespeople told him.
In looking at the situation in depth with him, here is what we learned
- While the salespeople had some ideas of where customer interest was based on some conversations with customers and looking at what competitors were doing, no one really delved into the details as to:
- What the actual value of the products would be to the customer
- How many customers were actually interested in the new products
- How the products were different from other products offered to the customers
- Whether the new products would really meet their needs
Development on these two products was done based on input from the salespeople without probing for significant details or doing further research with the customer.
We decided to survey the customers who tried the two new products and those who have not tried them to get their thoughts. Here is what we learned:
- The new products weren’t significantly different than current products.
- They would like to see enhancements to the current products, rather than completely new products overall.
- The value and benefits of the products to the customers wasn’t clear.
- There are other products they would like to see developed that would better meet their needs.
Are those two new products wasted? Not really. By reaching out to customers through focus groups or through a customer advisory council, the business owner can determine exactly what the customer wants and rework the products to meet those needs.
And next time… do a bit more homework before development! Sometimes in our excitement to get new products out the door, we forget that we really want to find out if the customer wants those products before we invest in them.
Interested in working better with your customers and building stronger relationships? Read these customer-service focused posts:
