Customer Centri Cthinking

LindellAssociates, LLC
Consultants to Management

8 Steps To Thinking Like a
Customer

P. Griffith “Griff” Lindell

Copyright ©2009 Lindell Associates, LLC All rights reserved.

To focus well on your customers…


…Start with Yourself


The Process of developing
Customer-CENTERED Thinking

1. Begin with knowing what business
your are in.
2. Refined with an acknowledgement of
the impediments to success.
3. Driven by thinking about the Who,
What and Why of a Customer
4. Developed by understanding your
core/whole product

The Process of developing
Customer-CENTERED Thinking

5. Clarified by metaphor
6. Honed by your Unique Selling
Proposition
7. Visualized by Positioning
8. Made real by your Customer Intimacy


1. What business are you really in?


Purpose: Why did I start this
business? What difference did I
want to make?


Mental Models What
models do I use to
think about this
business?
Transactional Model?
Customer Intimacy
Model? Best Price
Model?
Value Model?


A Picture of Your Business

Purpose
Principles
Positioning


The Business I am in

 Make a list of the kinds of products you
sell
 What business does that seem to suggest
that you are in?
 Discuss with your group


The Flow of Thought
A Way to Think About Your Business

Offering
My Product

Tanigble Property Service Offering
Physical Product Conceptual

Core Product The "stuff" that supports it Core service The "stuff" that supports it

Features Value Unique Stuff Value Features Value Unique Stuff Value


Product Market
Domain Domain


Product Market
Domain Domain

 Freight Trains  Transportation
 Passenger Trains
 RR Rights-of-Way


Product Market
Domain Domain

 Freight Trains  Transportation Co.
 Passenger Trains
 RR Rights-of-Way
• Airline Freight
• Passengers
• Airports
• Trucking
• Shipping

Understanding Your Domains
 Product Domain  Market Domain

What business are your really in?
What will this mean to your marketing?


2. Overcoming barriers to success


2. Refined with an
acknowledgement of the
impediments to success.

Overcoming them and making
Them Work FOR YOU


JERICHO PRINCIPLE
Overcoming Impediments to Success

 Begin with a fundamental belief
in the vision
 Build with the outcome in mind.
 Involve all the people.
 Be radical.


JERICHO PRINCIPLE
Overcoming Impediments to Success

 Make it simple.
 Be persistent.

 Maximize your resources.


Remember...
...It’s not the seemingly
insurmountable height of the wall that
matters, it’s where you want to be
positioned when the wall comes
tumbling down.

Strategic Considerations

 What are the impediments to our
success that must be overcome?


Choose Your Top
5 Impediments to Success
Impediments
1. .
2. .
3. .
4. .
5. .



What strengths do you have?



 What are the impediments to your
success that must be overcome?

 What strengths do you have?

 How can they be applied to overcome
the impediments to our growth?


First, List Your Top 5
Impediments to Success

Impediments  _______________
1. .  _______________
2. .  _______________
 _______________
3. .
 _______________
4. .  _______________
5. .  _______________
 _______________

3. Understand the Customer


3. Thinking About the
Who, What and Why of
LindellAssociates, LLC a Customer
Define
Describe
Develop


Define: What Customer Have in
Common
Retail Business B to B

 Age  Determine the “target”
 Management
 Gender
 User
 Neighborhood
 Other “buying
 Walking center” members
 Driving  purchasing

 Affinity  financial

 operations


Customers Motivations
 What do prospective customer have in
common?
 Dilemmas “if only….”
 Values
 Experiences (floods, wars, recession, etc.)
 Education
 Expertise
 Geography

Define: Understanding the
Customer
Target Markets
1 2 3 4

Characteristics

Needs

Value


DEFINE: Product Scenario - 1

 Personalize the typical user by: age,
education, gender, typical day

 What is the dilemma that faces this person
that your product/service will solve?

 Describe the arsenal of resources available to
that person (other businesses, Web, DIY ???)


PRODUCT SCENARIO - 2
 Revise the dilemma
illustrating how your
product/service
solves the
prospect’s problem
and compels
(drives) him/her to
value your solution


Meeting Customer Needs

 What needs have been expressed for which you
have a solution?
 What needs have been expressed for which no
one has yet developed a solution?
 What needs have been basically unrecognized by
the customer for which you have provided a
solution?
 What unrecognized needs still exist that are
without solutions?
Copyright ©2000 by Lindell Associates


Customer Perspective
Needs Met Un-Met
Recognized

Un-
recognized


Needs Met Un-Met
Recognized I am searching for a
Dilemma – if not
better way – is yours
you, then who?
better?

Un- Why am I paying What’s your
recognized for this? roadmap?


Describe: Arsenal of Resources

 Where can they go to get their needs
met?
 What products/services can they buy?
 What processes (DIY) can they
employ?


• Where can they go to get their needs met?
• What products/services can they buy?


Develop Your Business…

…Using the Following Chart


Customer Needs
Strongly Felt Latent
Very Unique Readily Available
Solutions

Copyright ©2009 ©2000 Associates,Associates
Copyright Lindell by Lindell LLC All rights reserved.

Customer Needs
Strongly Felt Latent
Very Unique Readily Available
“Overkill…I’m
Price of Entry paying for more
- Ante to game than I need--
Solutions

don’t need all
these features!”

Potential as future
market drivers.
Benefits Depends on how real
needs are.
become your
differentiator Too early is as
dangerous as too late


UNDERSTANDING THE CUSTOMER

The spoken and unspoken customer needs
and value system are understood in part by
the answers to these questions:
Who is our TARGET audience-by segment?
What are their characteristics?
What do they value?
What do these CUSTOMERS need?
Do they even know their needs?
What does the Competition offer them?
What can YOU offer them?
What do our customers THINK YOU offer
them?

Develop an Intimate
Understanding the Customer
Target Markets
1 2 3 4

Characteristics

Needs

Value


3. Understand Your Product


4. Take Another Look at YOUR
Product…

….Understanding what the customer
values about the whole product
experience.


Sprinkler
Maintenance

Trimming
Whole Trees
Product
Mow & blow
Post-
emergent

Weeding


Core/Whole

 Which core product features are most
important to your customers?
 Which whole product features are most
important to your customers?
 What combined set gives the most
compelling customer experience?


Core / Whole
 Whole
 Contains bait already
 Comes large bags or six-
packs
 Safety guarantees
 Free training
• Core  Free placement guide
– See-through top  Free homeowners guides
– Fits into corners  Comes with Technician
– Plastic Pouch with quantity purchase


Group Discussion of one of Your
Whole Product Attributes

Whole
Product

 Which combination product features are
most important to your customers?

5. The Magic of the Metaphor


5. Dig Deeper into YOUR
Product…

…for a “picture” that makes the
difference


Product Description From a
 Features = Quality inherent in the product
 Function = Explains what the feature does
 Benefit = The value or worth derived from
Financial the feature
Productivity/Process
 Motive = The underlying need met by the benefit
(safety, economy, relieving fear etc..)


Self actualization Needs

Esteem Needs

Belonging Needs

Safety Needs

Physiological Needs

Product Description From a
 Features = Quality inherent in the product
 Function = Explains what the feature does
 Benefit = The value or worth derived from
Financial the feature
Productivity/Process
 Motive = The underlying need met by the benefit
(safety, economy, relieving fear etc..)
• Metaphor = Use of aids (or metaphors) to strikingly
bring home the VALUE

Feature / Advantage / Benefit /
Motive / Metaphor

 Transparent Red cover
 Advantage: you can see inside without
illuminating in the eyes of the roach
 Benefit: you know how much bait is left
and/or has been used
 Motive: Saves time, increases
effectiveness and makes user look good
 Metaphor: Superman with X-ray vision


Magic of the Metaphor

 Feature:
 Advantage:
 Benefit:
 Motive:
 Metaphor:


6. Understand What is UNIQUE


6. Unique Selling
Proposition…

…for the Customer’s Perspective


What is Unique About…

… Your store?
… Your location?
… Your service?
… Your website?
… You customer interaction?
… Your products?


Reason to Choose


USP - THE UNIQUE SELLING
PROPOSITION

 USP communicated must be an
appropriate, compelling message to the
target prospect
 POSITIONING identifies you in the
marketplace
 USP sells to the individual user


U S P REQUIREMENTS FROM
THE CUSTOMER’S PERSPECTIVE

 ATTENTION GETTING
 ACCEPTABLE
 AROUSING
 ACHIEVING A SOLUTION


Unique Selling Proposition
USP

The Maxforce Bait permits roaches to kill
roaches because the bait has proven
attractant qualities and a slow speed of kill
permitting the foraging roach to return to
the harborage and “infect” other roaches.
Message
Roaches Killing Roaches.

Group Work

 Pick a USP for your product
 How can you make it attention-getting?
 Acceptable?
 Arousing?
 Achieving solution?
 Write the message


7. The Customer’s Choices


Getting Into the …

…Customer’s Head


Understanding Positioning

 PRICE
 PERFORMANCE
 PACKAGING
 PERSONA



Analyzing Your Offering from a
Customer’s Perspective
Price
out of my Easy to
league x_____x_____x_____x_____x_____x
justify

Performance
Adequate x_____x_____x_____x_____x_____x Exceptional


Analyzing Your Offering from a
Customer’s Perspective

Packaging -Whole Product 6 months

Minimal x_____x_____x_____x_____x_____x Maximize

Persona
Stable x_____x_____x_____x_____x_____x Cutting
Edge


4 Ps of Positioning

 Mark where you are today
 Then mark where you want to be in the future
with an arrow between the two (if there is
movement) and put in the time frame.
 Where do customers want people in this
business?
 How does that change your plan?


Price
__________x_____x_____x_____x_____x_____x ________

Performance
__________ x_ ___x___ __x_____x_____x_____x________

Packaging
__________ x_ ___x___ __x_____x_____x_____x________

Persona
__________ x_ ___x___Lindell Associates, LLC All rights reserved.
Copyright ©2009 __x_____x_____x_____x________

War-wall
In Your Customer’s
Head by Examining
the Messages
Competing with Yours


What To Look For

 Battles chosen
 Comparisons made
 Claims made
 Areas ignored


Real Customer Intimacy


Basics

 Customer service must be start of your
business strategy STEPS 1 - 7
 Customer is co-creator of Company’s
Culture STEP 8


engage your customers
embrace customers as co-creators

Calculating Thoughts

 Calculate cost of losing a customer. Loss of
new, incremental revenue/opportunity
 Referral - a “lifetime customer”
 Recurring revenue
 Replacing - a customer – Know the marketing
cost per lead that turns into a closed deal
 Reactive - Cost of viral effect, how many other
customers will you lose based on bad referrals?



To Better Customer Intamacy


Improve Customer Service

 Test your own first impact
 How is the phone answered?
 Machine?
 Live person?
 How does caller feel ?
 Options?
 Call Forwarding
 Other?

Improving Customer Intimacy

 Utilizing customer
reviews to sell for
you
 If Used, what
changes?



 Don’t make
promises you can’t
keep.
 What promise is the
hardest to keep?
 What can you do to
change that result?



 Be helpful even if
no profit in it.
 Examples?



 Throw in something
extra
 Part of the Business
Plan
 Investment


#6 Staff with Individual Power


 Train everyone to
be customer-centric
 Empower
 Encourage
 Enthuse


Welcome to Nordstrom

We're glad to have you with our Company. Our number one goal is to provide
outstanding customer service. Set both your personal and professional goals
high. We have great confidence in your ability to achieve them.

Nordstrom Rules: Rule #1:
Use good judgment in all situations.
There will be no additional rules.
Please feel free to ask your department manager, store manager, or division
general manager any question at any time.



 Understand that it’s
always about
VALUE, not price.


Handling Objections

The Art of Keeping the
Conversation Going


Pricing

…Is always about


Sales Objection: “You’re Too
Much Money”

 “Oh, why is that?”
 “What do you base that on?”
 “What, in my presentation, drove you to
believe/think/feel/know that our solution
costs too much?”


Sales Objection: “You’re Too
Much Money”
 “Your competitor is cheaper…”
 Retrace steps – understand the Total Cost
of Project –
to ?
Remember, if the prospect thinks your price
is too high, you have not laid a solid
foundation of benefit and value.

Customers Do Not Want to Be
Sold…they Do Want to Buy…

 Know your customer - intimately
 Understand your competitors –
thoroughly
 Know yourself – brutally
 Produce messages that are captivating,
creative and compelling to the
customer.

Customer Centri Cthinking

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