Brainless Business Bible: Customers Want Innovation
Posted by Liz Strauss · 6 Comments
Question What We Think
In October I went to a presentation by an evangelist from a huge corporation. He was speaking about how to serve customers. He made the following statement.
Customers want innovation.
It was also one of his PowerPoint slides.
“Oh dear,” I thought. “Here I sit in a room filled with people. Some of them, based solely on this man’s title and his place on the speaker’s platform, were bound to repeat that silly statement.”
In the olden days, when I had less patience, had that man said that sentence in a meeting with me. I would have tried to handle it gently. Yet, I would have felt obligated to point out the choice of words that were bound to skew his thinking.
Customers?
Every customer is a person.
See how the sentence changes when it becomes
People want innovation.
Do we? I suppose some folks put down hard earned cash for “innovation.” Personally, I’m not fully sure what innovation is.
When I go looking for something, when I buy something on impulse, when I spend my money on what I need, want, or desire, innovation is not on my mind. Solving a real or perceived problem is.
Solutions make my life, easier, more fun, more elegant. Solutions make me feel better about myself.
Innovation isn’t about me. It’s about the person who thought it up.
Liz Strauss
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Excellent! imho people don’t want change; they want more time, money, love (insert fleeting emotional quotient here). When we invented the single most innovative packaging tool since the invention of the carton box we were so full of ourselves we couldn’t see how it didn’t matter to someone who wasn’t looking to change how they do basic things. People like the comfort of doing things the same; experimentation is risky and happens most often under the sheets, with a new friend, or if you wake up on an island with nothing to eat. (I’m taking about radical innovation and not version upgrades or new paint colors; and most people, ergo most companies.) Change does happen, and it’s exciting, but it’s not to stroke the ego of the company pushing it as an edge, or shouting innovate you damn’d monkeys!
Chris,
Your passion about your product sure shows. I couldn’t help but keep your comment . . .
Liz
Thank you Liz; passion is fun, but like you’ve eloquently pointed out, it’s foolish to tell/yell product benefit vs. showing how we can help fulfill a desire in someone for something better in their life that has nothing to do with “us”. Sadly we started by screaming “we’re so cool” and so it reverberates over what we now see as a better dialog — live and learn (by reading great thoughts like yours!~)
Well said, Chris.
Too often what we think is a benefit . . . is only a benefit in our own eyes.
Thank you for your comment, but the wisdom you found wasn’t mine.
You got there the old-fashioned way. You earned it.