Time and time again I’ve worked with organizations bringing new products to market and time and time again the expectations of the product are mis-aligned with what the realities of the product. The “blame” if you feel compelled to assign any blame can be assigned to the sales person or the marketing team for mis-representing the product, to the product development team for incomplete, missing, or broken features, or on the customer for not understanding the product.
At the end of the day, assigning blame is a foolish pursuit. At the end of the day, the fact remains that someone had hopes that were unfulfilled. The question now faced is: what are you going to do about it?
You have:
- a product (or service)
- a user or customer
- a revenue opportunity (or risk, depending how you want to look at it)
Seth Godin believes your customers are watching what you do over listening to what you say. Patrick Williams asserts that you need to spend more time listening and understanding what your customers and prospects want and need. Alliance Science adds that you should be the first place your customers go to find a solution.
As I stated yesterday, much of this comes down to trust and communication.
Isn’t it time to get a real dialog started? Provide something that someone wants or needs and you struggle selling it. Treat your customers like they matter and they won’t distrust you. Do the right thing for your customers and they will do the right thing for you.
March 11th, 2008 at 1:41 pm
Trust: The Alpha and Omega…
What is the one element which must be in place for a prospect to purchase from you at least once? Byron Webster, founder and Chief of Whisperlabs, sagely suggests that in order to sutstain client relations, trust must be reciprical….