An obsession with being customer-driven comes a close second to humble leadership in my pantheon of horrible modern business bromides.
The fact is that most customers know what they want, but very few know what they need. And if you don’t know what your customers need better than they do, you don’t have much of a business.
Our job as providers of products and services is to help them understand the difference between want and need, and then deliver value focused on the latter.
For example, when executives tell me they want help with productivity or time management, I explain that what they actually need is help to improve their self-management. Then I show them how to do it.
This is not semantics.
It’s the difference between dumb order taking and actually improving the condition of the customer.
If you’d like some help in making your business more value-driven, contact me today: hm@hamishmackenzie.com.
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Copyright Hamish Mackenzie, 2020
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