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Business Rule #26:
Show Your Face
April 22, 2005
(PAGE 2 of 3)
When the Net Worth team started brainstorming, Alex got visual. Pen in hand, he drew out his ideas to see what the product would look like. Still he had no interest in seeking inspiration from existing organizers. Although starting from scratch may be the more creative way to go, Alex could have benefited from checking out storage solutions that have worked in the past. Watching Net Worth design its clutter table, I wondered why anyone would give it floor space, when a standard file cabinet holds so much more and is easier to use.
The importance of personal contact was just as clear when it came to conducting focus groups. Magna has been doing very well the past few weeks, aware that the easiest way to conduct a focus group for a retailer is to visit the store and talk to the customers. These end users are the exact market Staples wants to reach. This fact wasn’t lost on the Staples executives, who wisely invited a group of office managers to ask questions at the final product presentations.
Magna looked at what customers had in their shopping carts and listened to their ideas about fighting clutter. Many shoppers come to a store hoping to discover a great new product. Because their focus group consisted of people who had taken the time to come down to Staples, they found people who were ready to talk office supplies. The result? Magna came away with an idea for a rotating caddy that Staples is manufacturing and marketing as “The Desk Apprentice.”
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The Net Worth boys stuck with the phone. Alex gave Bren Olswanger a hard copy of the yellow pages—the yellow pages!—when he assigned the task of collecting information from a focus group. It was no surprise that Bren met with nothing but rejection. He was interrupting strangers, taking them away from their own work to ask for help. The poor guy was more than likely mistaken for a telemarketer. When Bren realized that phone canvassing wasn’t working, he should have taken the initiative to change his approach.
Not listening to potential customers is a common mistake among sales people. Sales reps come in excited about what they are selling and, all too often, launch into a sales pitch immediately. That’s a mistake. When you ask a customer the right questions, he will set out a road map for exactly how he wants to be sold.
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When you ask a customer the right questions, he will set out a road map for exactly how he wants to be sold.
