During my 30+ years in business I have heard or read many dangerous claims, some of them being the following:
- “We have no competitors.”
- “Our quality speaks for itself.”
- “This promotion is getting old, even though is sells.”
- ”Our best client covers 70% of our income.”
- “We should stop marketing; it’s a waste of money.”
But if I had to choose only one, I think I’d go with this:
“We know our customers.”
Not because it’s a false claim. On the contrary. And that’s precisely what makes it dangerous.
Because the people who say it are usually experienced. They have spent years building relationships, serving clients and accumulating knowledge about their market. They know the names, the habits, the demographics, the objections and sometimes even the children’s names of the people they do business with.
And that’s where the trap begins.
Experience is a wonderful thing. Until it quietly turns into certainty. And certainty, unlike curiosity, doesn’t ask many questions.
Because Mark Twain was right: ”It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure, that just ain’t so.”
The GPS That Missed the Last Update
GPS devices are remarkably confident creatures. They speak calmly, never hesitate, and seem to know exactly where they are taking you.
Until they don’t.
A new highway appeared. A road was closed. The map changed, but the device didn’t. So it continues guiding you calmly and confidently, using information that was perfectly correct… a few weeks ago.
Companies have their own versions of outdated GPS systems.
Not because they lack experience. More often, because experience needs updates too.
Markets move quietly. Customers evolve. Competitors change. And unlike your phone, the market never pops up a message saying:
“A newer version is available.”
People Don’t Buy Because They Are 52
Years ago, marketing books loved demographics. Age, income, education, location.
Useful information, of course.
But I’ve always found it mildly amusing that we spend so much time describing customers in Personas and so little time really understanding them.
Knowing that your buyer is a 52-year-old manufacturing executive living somewhere in Utrecht tells you almost nothing about why he signed your proposal last Tuesday.
Or why he didn’t sign your competitor’s.
Or why he’s suddenly worried about risk, and calls you.
Or why price has become less important than implementation speed.
People don’t buy because they belong to a demographic category. People buy because something is bothering them. Because they want to avoid a mistake. Because their boss is putting pressure on them. Because they don’t want to look foolish. Because uncertainty makes them uncomfortable.
Human beings are gloriously irrational creatures. Excel spreadsheets filled with demographics struggle with that.
Sometimes Ten Campaigns Are Worth Less Than One Good Question
Many years ago, one of my clients had a habit shared by thousands of other companies.
Whenever sales slowed down, they thought about promotions. Discounts, contests, lotteries, prizes.
The usual arsenal.
At one point, we decided to ask customers a few simple questions. Nothing sophisticated, no expensive research project, no consultants with forty-slide presentations. Just a few honest conversations.
And we discovered something interesting.
98% of the customers preferred a small but guaranteed reward over the excitement of winning a much larger prize through a lottery.
So they replaced the prize draw with a loyalty program based on coupons.
Simple. Unremarkable. And highly effective.
Not because the mechanism itself was revolutionary. But because they stopped guessing.
Sometimes one useful insight is worth more than ten assumptions based on previous experiences.
Strangely Enough, Your Existing Customers Are Not Yesterday’s News
Companies love new customers. Which is understandable. New customers are exciting. They make us feel that growth is happening.
Existing customers, meanwhile, are often treated with the enthusiasm usually reserved for last year’s calendar.
But Jay Corad Levinson, the father of Guerrilla Marketing, used to compare the list of existing customers with a gold mine.
Because existing customers buy again. Or buy more. They recommend. They provide feedback. They reveal what is changing in the market long before consultants and trend reports do. In fact, some of the most valuable (and cheap) market research is already waiting inside your customer base.
You simply must ask. And resist the temptation to talk. Learn to listen.
A study by consulting firm Yankelovich found that 68% of consumers said they were more likely to buy from companies that asked for their opinions. If more than two-thirds of your customers want to talk to you, then you need to ask, and listen!
Curiosity Ages Better Than Experience
Market alignment does not begin with a workshop. Or a positioning exercise. Or a new website.
It starts with something much less glamorous.
Humility.
The willingness to admit that maybe your service has to be better explained in order to be understood and bought. Or that the market has changed. Maybe customers are looking to solve different problems. Maybe competitors are telling better stories.
Maybe the offer that built the company is no longer the offer that will grow it.
One of the paradoxes of business is that lasting success tends to reinforce assumptions. But curiosity, after all, is one of those rare assets that becomes more valuable with age.
Final Thought
Perhaps the most successful companies are not those that know their customers best.
Perhaps they are the ones that never stop understanding them better.
There is a subtle difference between the two: one assumes the journey is over, the other suspects there is always another update waiting to be installed.
And unlike your phone, the customers won’t politely remind you.
They will simply move on.