Ramdas Shenoyy talks about the marketing myopia.
Most of the technocrats have a marketing myopia, where they are so much married to the product that they talk about the technology, the patents, the IP and how the product is a blessing to humanity
The critical question, one has to ask is whether the product offering is able to address the customer pain areas. Essentially there are 2 ways to develop a product, one is to focus on the technology and the other on the needs of the customer. Asking what the technology can do is less valuable than asking what the customer needs it to do.
Even if you come from the technology school of thought, when a new product is released you need to ask, what can we use this product for to benefit the customer.
Customer orientated design looks at what the customer needs and then finds the technology to help them.
If you take a simple back packs for laptops, then the whole design has changed over the years where now they know that it is more of an office bag and all requirements that the individual needs is incorporated in the bag.
Same with the CRM software. Customers specifically in the SME space look for a solution which understand their specific business process and lingo and what typically is offered in the market are solutions which are difficult to implement and use. The need of the hour are solutions that understand the workflow of the process, that can be customised as per the business needs, easily customizable and a support that makes solutions easily implement and helps to build business and growth and not just be seen as a tool.
So the crux of the story is
- The customer is important
- The customer doesn’t always know what they want but there will be an implied need that needs to be addressed
- In a technologically challenging area, sometimes the technology has to push, but one cannot stop listening to the customers
- To be customer orientated, you ensure to put the customer in the centre and always ask what they want.