You want innovation? You need one single mind shift!
Usually, when we talk and think about our business and our customers we think of a direction from the business to the customers. We look out, towards the customers.
There is a whole language and a huge set of tools and templates that guides us in the inside-out world:
We categorize customers in target groups and segments, which we need to define, find and target. We try to reach them, attract them, convince them and convert them to buyers. We make campaigns, we set goals for reach and sales. Then we try to increase the sales by up-selling and cross-selling. We try to increase our share of their wallets. We try to make them loyal (or even worse — ’loyalize them’), and sometimes even try to lock them in, making it difficult for them to go to a competitor.
As we know, the language forms our thinking. And this language and way of thinking can be a big barrier for innovation.
So, what happens if we just turn the arrow around?
Welcome to the world of empathy! This simple shift lets us see the customers as a human beings, with intentions, looking out at the world. And maybe looking at our business, for a reason.
This automatically change our perspective. We need to shift our language. We need to be curious and humble. We need empathy. We must try to understand the users — their intentions, dreams and aspirations, and their frustrations, struggles, problems. The values they try to live up too. The contexts they act in, with all its drivers, hinders and barriers. We must understand the ’defining moments’ – those situations and events that are essential in their real lives. When we understand all this, we know what problems to solve. Now we can innovate and create meaningful and valuable experiences.
This simple mind shift makes a huge difference. It means going from inside-out to outside-in.
The customers are not your assets
The language in the inside-out-world leads us to view the customers as objects or assets, or means for the business to be successful. When we instead choose the language that represents the outside-in mindset, it lets us view the customers as subjects. We — our products and services — are the customers assets, that might help them to be successful — if we do our job well.
The mind shift needed for innovation
So if you are going to innovate, you need to start by going all in on the outside-in perspective. Because if you truly understand your customers, and try to solve their problems, instead of yours, you have a chance to innovate and create real value.
If you succeed in this, you can then explore business opportunities. As a matter of fact, we can view our own success — the business success — as a “positive side-effect”. As a simple example, a bank should whole-heartedly focus on helping the customers to be economically successful. If doing that well, the bank is most likely to be economically successful, as a positive side-effect.
It may be harder than you think!
It may seem easy to take the outside-in perspective. But it is surprisingly hard! It is easy to be drawn back into the inside-out marketing lingo. Therefore, you need to change the language and even ’re-program’ yours and your teams or organisation’s mindset. You need to go all-in on outside-in. You need to get rid of the target group-reach-convert-up-sell-loyalise-way of talking and thinking.
Not convinced yet? Think of yourself. Try to view a company spending their time and energy on you as a target group, where you are someone they want to reach, convert and loyalize, maybe lock in. Not a nice feeling, right? Now think instead of a company that is genuinely trying to understand your context and your needs, and develop products and services that will help you solve your problems. Quite a difference!
Key takeaways
1. When you think about or discuss the relation between your company and its customers, draw the arrow from the customers to your company.
2. Use words that view the customers as subjects (”intentions”, ”needs”, ”aspirations”, ”frustrations”, ”value”, ”satisfaction” etc).
3. Avoid words that view customers as your assets or passive receivers of your marketing activities (”target group”, ”reach”, ”convert”, ”funnel”, ”loyal” etc).
4. Avoid thinking of your customers as your asset to be successful. Instead, view your products and services as your customers’ assets to create joy, meaning or to solve their real-life problems.
5. Test to view your business success as “a positive side effect”, that will appear if you manage to create joy, efficiency or other positive effects in your customers’ lives.
P.S. The reasoning above apply to sales as well.
