ProductMarketing.com

Why customer needs don’t always matter — On Product Management

Product Management is not about satisfying customer needs and wants. Product Management is about ensuring business goals are met and business success delivered.

Now don’t get me wrong. I certainly believe in addressing market needs and driving customer satisfaction. That is definitely a great way to achieve business goals. But keep in mind that addressing customer needs etc. are a MEANS of achieving an END, not an END unto themselves.

via onproductmanagement.net

We don't want customers to define our products; we want customers to inspire our products. And why? Read Saeed's article for more.

Unsticking the stuck deal — On Product Management

Welcome to the stuck deal. Sales reps, sale teams, sales managers, and sales VPs see this all the time. In the midst of some win/loss analysis work, several of my clients have started to send these deals to me. “See what you can find out,” they say.

via onproductmanagement.net

Based on dozens of interviews, my pal Alan examines why deals get stuck and what to do to get them moving again.

Maintaining Customer Relationships — Pragmatic Marketing

Do you rely on customer references for closing deals, working the press, and communicating with the analysts? Attendees in the Effective Product Marketing class learn that the customer database decays at a rate of 3% each month. In a year, more than a third of all customer information is invalid. Who is keeping those references alive and up-to-date?

Further, it's easier to keep a customer than to get one! We go to all the trouble and expense of acquiring a customer and then make little effort to maintain the customer. Unfortunately, dissatisfied customers don't complain; they just disappear!

via pragmaticmarketing.com

What are you doing to maintain your customer relationships? Social media and sales visits are great but are you connecting with customers consistently? And are you connecting with all of them, or just the few that are buying?

Posted via email from Steve Johnson on product management

More on trust

It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it.

-- Warren Buffett

 

In an earlier post I wrote about the importance of trust for premium pricing. But trust extends beyond confidence in the product; trust is even more important when considering working with a vendor.

"Body scans are never saved."

The new scanners used by TSA in major airports show a virtually naked view of the travelers. Ignoring the discomfort of having ANY strangers see us naked, the TSA insists the images are looked at by officers in a remote location and not by staff at the machine, and that the images are deleted immediately after the passenger is cleared through security. Yet pictures from these machines continue to pop up on the internet. We just don't trust the vendor of the machines or the TSA to do what they say.

"We won't spam you."

We give our names and email to a trusted vendor who abuses it when revenues are off. Over the protests of the "good" marketing people, the execs or sales people or "bad" marketing people insist that the downside of spamming customers is offset by the increase in revenue. "If we can make a million, who cares if we lose only 10% of our names?" But the vendor has lost more than that. Trust is gone.

Trust is earned

Why do we buy Toyota instead of GM? Design and quality over decades.

Why do we buy Apple instead of Microsoft? Design and quality over decades.

Why do we buy this instead of that? Design and quality over decades.

What can you do to increase trust with your customers? Isn't this really what marketing is all about?

Who is the customer?

From a ZDNet story on Apple’s relationship with Australian carrier Telstra, quoting CEO David Tholey:

“We are Apple’s largest customer in Australia, yet with Apple we are still working through some areas in how to work.”

John Gruber writes, 

There you go. He thinks his carrier is Apple’s customer. Thus the conflict, because Apple treats iPhone owners as its customers.

More at http://www.zdnet.com.au/cracks-form-in-telstra-apple-relationship-339306493.htm

Who is your "real" customer? Is not sales people or the distributor or even the buyer. It's the person who uses your product. You have to get through the others to get to a customer who uses the product but if he or she isn't happy, you've not really accomplished anything. 

"Nothing seems hard...

to people who don't do it."

Dennis Snow's latest video post reveals how disconnected "corporate" people get from the real work of working with customers. Execs and product managers need to spend time with the market before they make decisions about the market.

NIHITO™

Posted via email from Steve Johnson on product management

your opinion matters to us... except when it doesn't

Got this one in email:

We are happy to assist you with the availability of [product].

We regret to inform you that [product] has been discontinued. We understand your disappointment in discovering that your favorite product is not currently a part of our product line.

Customer feedback regarding our products and services is always welcomed and appreciated. We strive for excellence in both our merchandise and our customer experience, and we continually evaluate current and future trends, as well as customer response and reaction. Your opinion matters to us and will be part of the ongoing assessment of our web site offerings.

TAG: working with customers

Posted via email from Steve Johnson on product management

The 5 Deadly Sins of Voicemail | Duct Tape Marketing

If you’re calling someone because you have something you would like to sell them, then you better not commit one of the following sins or you can forget about a call back.

via ducttapemarketing.com

Leaving a voice mail is a good practice when setting up appointments. Having a hard time getting call backs? Maybe you're breaking one of these rules.

Posted via email from Steve Johnson on product management

The Real Secret of Apple’s Product Philosophy | Stage Two

We often hear that Apple “plays the game” better than Sony, HP, Dell, etc – that’s not quite right. Apple is playing an entirely different game. What’s most amazing about this?  Nobody else seems to want to play with them, they just keep playing the “other” game, and poorly.

via stagetwo.com

The best competitive strategy is to ignore the competition and focus on the customer. The competitive offers are typically a fairly low bar so it's easy to be superior.

Posted via email from Steve Johnson on product management

Market-driven policies

Does your organization have processes or policies that your customers might wish the government would penalize you for? I’m not talking about those policies that are regulatory-based; I’m asking you to look at company-driven processes and policies.

via dennissnowblog.com

Being market-driven is looking at the company and its policies from the customer's point of view.

How do your customers react to "That's our policy!" or "Here's what YOU have to do..." or "'They' won't let me do that for you."

How do YOU react to these statements when you're the customer?

Posted via email from Steve Johnson on product management

Video Thursday: Loyalty is not dead

Posted via email from Steve Johnson on product management

Request: denied

Dear sir:

We have received your request to change your profile. We regret that your request was denied for the following reason:

Reason: denied

Clearly a customer-focused company, eh?

It's sometimes nice to explain why you won't do what the customer wants.

Posted via email from Steve Johnson on product management

Managing stakeholder expectations via Product Council « Software Product Manager by Gopal Shenoy

So is there a way to manage these expectations and make sure there is a clear product direction? I have been using Product Council meetings to successfully do this.

via productmanagementtips.com

Customer councils (or customer advisory boards) are great for discovering problems from those who use your products.

For more on advisory boards, see http://www.pragmaticmarketing.com/publications/topics/03/0305sj/

Posted via email from Steve Johnson on product management

Booking mistakenly sent to TripIt support

With so many addresses in your email list, it's easy to send an email to the wrong person or wrong account. We all do it once in a while. But what about vendors? How many support or sales teams get emails intended for someone else?

TripIt is a wonderful service that I've been using since 2008. Just forward all your travel confirmation emails to [email protected] to setup and maintain your itineraries. It's already a great product but their product teams have also been monitoring support logs to mine for additional requirements. Here's a common user problem:

It looks like you may have mistakenly sent a booking confirmation email to our support email address ([email protected] or [email protected]). Please forward your original confirmation email to [email protected] for processing.

Sometimes when we suggest making [email protected] a "safe sender," our customers inadvertently (and understandably) use our support address instead of [email protected][email protected] to your address book as well to prevent any confusion in the future. when forwarding booking confirmation emails. You might take this opportunity to add

If you were trying to contact our support team, please reply to this email and a member of our support team will get back to you as soon as possible.

How 'bout you? Are your customer support people encountering product problems that you're not hearing about? Go check with your support team. They are in communication with users (not buyers) and frequently have some insights on how to make your product even better.

Posted via email from Steve Johnson on product management

Does Your CEO Respond to Support Calls?

 Recently one of the companies we use to manage our website sent out a note describing some changes they were making that would have a significant impact on our use of the product. We sent their support team a very terse message about it and were shocked when we received a reply directly from their CEO. He apologized and offered to provide any assistance necessary to help us with the change.

Bad service seems to be the norm these days, and when something like this occurs, we feel the world should know there are companies that still care.

Who was it that contacted us? Chris Byers, CEO of Formstack. 

Good job, Chris!

Does anyone else have a customer support success story to share? 

Posted via email from Steve Johnson on product management

When Being Customer Driven is Dangerous

Being customer driven is great. Tap into the voice of the customer, and channel his wants and needs into compelling products and messages for rapid business growth, high profits, and stellar performance.

How can that be dangerous?

Simple- the wrong customer. You don’t tap into the voice of your TARGET customer in your TARGET market. And the ideal customer for you is often hidden in the silent majority- people who aren’t talking to you now because you aren’t talking about their needs, busy as you are talking to existing, different, customers.

via testdrivenmarketing.com

The customer is always right... except when it's the wrong customer. As Scott Sehlhorst at Tyner Blain said, "We want customers to INSPIRE our product, not DEFINE them."

Posted via email from Steve Johnson on product management

More on Switch

Want people to switch from <old product> to <your product>? Create a strategy that encompasses development, marketing, sales, and implementation. 

This Tivo banner ad is great but it fails to solve the fundamental problem with TiVo: implementation. In my experience, TiVo is better than anything the cable companies offer but it is (or appears to be) harder to implement. Call the cable folks, convince them that you know that they offer TiVo functionality in their junk DVR, beg them for a cablecard (they're required by law to provide it), wait a bunch, explain it all again to someone else, and then install it all yourself. 

Or, call the cable company, say "yes I want a DVR" and they'll send you a ready-to-use system. Gad, that is easy.

Yes, TiVo is better but you gotta work for it.

Posted via email from Steve Johnson on product management

Move from TypePad to Posterous

Since we've launched new tools to switch to Posterous, they have been very vocal in their demands to be next.  We're responding today by allowing all TypePad users, regardless of subscription level, to move their blogs and comments to Posterous using our new switching tools.  

via blog.posterous.com

The SWITCH campaign continues. Posterous started by switching from the freebie sites and now they're gunning for Typepad. Is Wordpress next?

What are you doing to help your customers get off and on to your ?

Posted via email from Steve Johnson on product management

Can I pay you a premium fee for a premium service - PLEASE?

Yesterday, after one too many unanswered tech support emails, I invested in a new web hosting provider.  The new provider is around 400% more expensive than the previous one, but their customer service is extremely good.  I had already researched them months ago and was really impressed.

via jimsmarketingblog.com

Nice writeup about pricing, customer support, and the pain of switching. And I expect Jim will get a follow-up from the old service asking how to win back his business. Too late. He didn't want to leave but having left, he ain't comin' back.

Posted via web from Steve Johnson on product management

Don Norman's talk from Business of Software 2009

Imagine you’re on the first slide of your powerpoint presentation and want to move to the next slide. Your remote control has two buttons. They are unmarked, but one button points up and one button points down. Which button do you press? Now, spend five minutes watching this video of Don Norman speaking at Business of Software 2009.

Posted via email from Steve Johnson on product management