Using Customer Input

There is an easy way to find new profit centers! In fact, it is so easy that many businesses simply overlook it. All you have to do is ask your customers!

My company has often found new profit centers simply by chatting with our customers. In one case, we actually created the problem that we eventually solved . We were performing inventory scans using a new scanner process that we created. We were able to perform inventories so fast that we completely overwhelmed the group that accepted and reconciled our inventories. This could have put a premature end to our new scanning service. However, we talked with our customers about the reconciliation process and were able (with a fair amount of effort) to create a new software program that could keep up with the scanning service. Not only did our scanning service thrive, but we also sold software enabling our customers to keep up with us. It was a win-winwin situation.

Consulting your customer base is an ideal way to deal with almost any problem within any company. If you are doing a good job with your current products, your customers will trust you and tell you. If you find out that several customers are having the same problem, it is time to do your research and start planning on a new product or service to relieve this pain.

When salesmen contact me with a new widget, my first filter is to determine if the widget takes some pain away. If it does not solve a current, urgent problem or need, then the salesman does not usually get very far. However, if it does solve a problem, then we can talk about price and value.