Your product may be the best thing out there today, yet that doesn’t mean it will be purchased tomorrow. You can sit on your thumbs and do nothing in terms of innovation or take the risk of speaking with your best customers to learn information that might initiate changes in your product, your operations, or your marketing and sales strategies.

Do this to avoid falling into another common trap leading to business failure caused by “product complacency.”  Initially, this is problematic when employees become complacent about your products and services, particularly your salespeople.  It’s deadly to the long-term survival of your business when the owner suffers from product complacency.

When you learn what your best customers are saying about your product, keep an open mind and carefully consider what you need to do better to create and market products that your customers value and want to buy.  You will see your business with new eyes, leading to higher net sales, gross profit, and operating income.

The world is a dynamic place. No product is static, and new ways of doing things will always replace the old. As a result, there will always be opportunities to do and be better in any business.  Continuously improving your products through adding new features and benefits or more efficient production and distribution to keep costs down is another core business model organizing principle that creates value for your customers and higher profits for you.

Whenever the belief is present that your product is fine, you have a problem.

Failing to continuously improve your product and services by solving customer problems better by reducing your cost of goods sold means you will make less money.  Allow key people in your organization to fight against efforts to change what and how you do things so you make more money is another leading cause of business failure.

Change and adaptation are necessary to evolution, whether in nature or business.  Those who don’t make the necessary changes will not survive and prosper.  Charles Darwin observed, “It is not the strongest of species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the most responsive to change.”  And how do we respond to change? By adaptation. A process that never happens overnight.

Consider the Kodak Company and what happened as they opted to sideline their digital camera technology. At one time, Kodak was one of America’s great companies, competing on fronts well beyond their photography product lines.  Looking back, it’s hard to believe that Kodak was the first to develop digital technology for cameras and for what would ultimately become the cell phone.

Never live with coulda, woulda, and shouda

Failing to take the leap to provide more value to your customers through product innovation and customer excellence is always a threat to the long-term health of any business.  Consider how Kodak could have become the Apple, Microsoft, or even Google of today if they had made different business decisions.

Blockbuster Video is another example: When was the last time you rented a video from Blockbuster?  Once, their stores, with the colorful blue awnings, were everywhere.  They used their size and distribution power to create stores that had multiple copies of high-demand movies. Consumers stopped going to smaller independent video rental stores because they were often out of the movies they wanted to see. It was so much easier to go to Blockbuster—which always had just the movies they were looking for.

Unfortunately, Netflix came along and turned the entertainment industry on its head. Before Netflix, home video rentals were king, and Blockbuster Video ruled on high.  Blockbuster’s leadership believed they were the 800-pound gorilla in home entertainment, and they were blind to the dramatic shift that was coming.

Here’s something you might not know: Blockbuster was given the option to purchase the budding Netflix company for fifty million dollars in the early 2000s, but they opted not to.  It isn’t known how much this decision was debated by the Blockbuster board of directors and senior management, but what is known is that this decision ultimately led to the company’s destruction.

Netflix subsequently grew beyond anybody’s expectations, eventually changing its video rental delivery model to include on-demand content, and now, even Netflix-produced original series. And Blockbuster, the small business killer in home entertainment, went out of business.

Why do you need to talk to your customers?

You talk with your customers to learn what they value in your product and services.  You talk to them to help management identify the necessary changes you need to make to keep your business thriving.   Fail to talk with your best customers, and you miss out on appreciating what they value in your products and your company.

Knowing everything you can about your loyal customers and heavy users are vital to your business success.  The best way to help people buy the things they need is by knowing what problem they are trying to solve. Then you can focus on communicating, in simple terms, all the ways in which your product is the perfect solution.  Fail to do this, and any intelligence gathering is worthless if it doesn’t lead you to know precisely what problem your target customers are trying to solve with their purchase.

A profitable and repeatable business model begins with knowing who your customer is, and second, clearly understanding what problem they are trying to solve.  After you have unlocked the concentrated truths around who and what and applied these truths to building your business, you’ll need to define when your customers most likely need your help accurately.

Do you have a concern about your products?

If you are concerned about product complacency, click here to schedule a time to talk with one of our marketing and sales experts to learn if this is an issue to be concerned about.