|
 
|
Engage your Customer
Community
"Put
sellers & buyers on the same team..."
from the desk of Peter Fillmore
October 2000
Do your prospects have a voice in your business plans? Product plans? Do
they have a voice in how they buy, or how they are sold to?
The impact of how you answer can be enormous - a Microsoft example was
given at an Ottawa e-commerce conference. Kevin Kelly, a
founding editor of Wired Magazine, and keynote speaker,
commented that "Microsoft sent 350,000 beta copies of Windows-98 to
corporate customers, who each spent an average of $3000 of time testing &
reporting back to Microsoft - thus giving $1 billion worth of development
work to their supplier."
And if you feel chronically short of top technical talent, here is a
thought from another keynote speaker - "No matter how many great engineers
you have, 99.5 % of the smart people will never work for you. So we are
all in the business of co-creating our products," said Bill Taylor,
co-founder of Fast Company.
At each stage of your revenue funnel, even in a small business, real
customers can make a contribution. Here are a few action ideas:
Be a thought leader - while early PR efforts are aimed at
contacting opinion leaders, you have to offer something of value, so write
articles and take photos of things that illustrate trends in your sector.
Learn what the opinion leaders are planning to do, and when. Make
suggestions. Over time, keep in touch with them and offer assistance.
Eventually, they will call you when they have a question within your area
of expertise. Guess what - you are now a thought leader too.
Where's the money? - "In the new economy ('e-conomy')
things become cheap; then they become free," commented Kelly. So how can a
vendor make a living? First, when you offer something free, set it up with
a brand-able identity. Kelly added, "Brands are attention management
devices." People still look to labels they know and trust, before they
will go to a competitor's freebie. Also remember - freebies that educate
on how to use your product are the best kind. For the revenue offerings,
ask customers - what do they value? What problems are unsolved by their
current vendors? Work this dialogue through informal customer advisory
groups and through training your sales force to use "value-based"
techniques, and bring back lots of feedback. You need to understand your
role in the value chain to define where you can make money.
Mission Statement - This has an external as well as
internal purpose. Make yours "customer consumable," and also the anchor of
your H/R strategy. "Your people want to make a difference, want to have
impact." Taylor commented, "The team with the clearest sense of purpose
wins." In the marketplace, there will be a need for volunteers and leaders
to run associations, conferences, and standards groups. Get involved.
Customers gain confidence when they see your mission confirmed by your
behavior in the market.
Send designers to work "in-house" with users - Does your
company struggle with product management issues? If designers spend some
time working on a customer site, asking real users what bugs them, you can
leap to the top in your category. Put sellers & buyers on the same team -
With an individual prospect, recommend an "evaluation & decision process"
up front, and get the prospect to help define key events and timing needed
to make a decision they will be happy with. Explain that by doing this
they can take an "off ramp" at any step, so the process won't waste their
time. You'll love this, because it surfaces a lot of useful closing
issues, and also forces out the bad situations before they become
time-wasters.
Put customers on a pedestal - More accurately a podium...
ask qualified prospects to speak to a group, sharing their experiences.
This could be internal or with other customers present, or an industry
event you are supporting.
Beta your marketing plan - Beta testing groups are a
great way to test marketing ideas such as positioning statements, product
identity or niche leadership concepts. Don't look at a beta as just a
technical test. Where appropriate, share what you learn with customers -
"The supplier with the smartest customers wins" as Kelly commented.
Your comments, questions, and suggestions for future articles are welcome
fillmore@westpark.com
|
|
