66 Listening to the Customer
b'I\\u2019ve got a really interesting topic that so many people make mistakes. It\\u2019s absolutely crucial if you\\u2019re in a business, in a company, starting your business, building your business. I\\u2019ll refer to it as listening to the customer.\\n\\n\\n\\nEverybody talks about listening to the customer, but why do so many companies and people get it wrong? Many companies, even very large ones, have no idea where their markets are, or who is in the market, or who might be leaving the market; who might be entering the market. Sometimes it\\u2019s just utter ignorance, sometimes the market has changed and they\\u2019re not keeping up with it.\\n\\nThink in terms of the auto industry. Back in the, say, 70s and before, there were really three companies here, and while there were those three companies, they were sort not really even competing very heavily; it was more what advertisements they had on TV, and traditions and loyalty to the different companies. Something happened, something changed, the Japanese came in with quality products, they were different in many different ways \\u2013 it changed the market, and they weren\\u2019t ready for it. Sometimes it\\u2019s an accident, and sometimes they just don\\u2019t have a complete picture.\\n\\nSomething that I had given in speeches in a couple of companies (the last time was at Microsoft, another time was all the way back when I worked at General Motors), and that was early on (well, in Microsoft it was much later), I was asked to talk to the people that were what they call the evangelists all over the world, and they had come in. What I started out with was letting them know: People and businesses don\\u2019t give a damn about your products! There were a few open mouths in the audience and there was not a peep in the room. What they care about is what your products can do for them. Can it solve the problem? That\\u2019s what you focus on. It sounds obvious, but when we have a product and we have engineers who are developers in whatever industry it is, that have developed and built new features. They\\u2019re more interested in showing people their features than what the features can do for the business.\\n\\nA few different examples on this. First of all, we can go all the way back \\u2013 there was a period of time with Chrysler, when it was in its financial difficulties, etc., it had terrible cars. I was inside Chrysler at the time, very often talking to key executives, and they basically just kept on saying: \\u201cWe don\\u2019t have any good products.\\u201d They knew it themselves. I asked them: \\u201cWhy are your customers buying them?\\u201d They said: \\u201cWe don\\u2019t know. They\\u2019re terrible.\\u201d They literally admitted that. I picked their weakest, most horrible car, and I said: \\u201cIf you\\u2019ve got over 100,000 people buying that car, why are they buying it? Find out why those people are buying it, and that\\u2019s what you advertise. You advertise what the people are buying it as their preference. That is your advantage.\\u201d \\u201cAdvantage Chrysler,\\u201d that was the campaign. Many of you who are older probably remember it well. When I first brought it to Chrysler, they just said to me: \\u201cWe don\\u2019t have any advantages.\\u201d It was because they didn\\u2019t know why their own customers were buying their products.\\n\\nKeep in mind: You find a niche in something or you find a hole in somebody else\\u2019s product. That is they don\\u2019t understand why somebody is buying their product \\u2013 you can position yourself and advertise through marketing to position yourself as the advantage. Also, inappropriate or ineffective customer focus affects loyalty. \\n\\nWhen I was at Microsoft, one of the early things that I did. The training & certification areas were focusing on helping the developers from the different product groups, such as the database server, the operating system, Windows, or the mail server, etc. They wanted to help them showcase the new features. Again, remember what I said: Nobody cares about the features of your product; what they care about is what it can do for them. It\\u2019s the same thing when you get into training.'