Customers often describe improvements to the present, while innovators focus on creating the future.
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Knowing what customers want today is a priority. If customers don’t see value from you today, they won’t care enough to stick around for your future vision. That’s why great companies balance two priorities:
Steve Jobs, founder of Apple, said, “Some people say, ‘Give the customer what they want.’ But that’s not my approach. People don’t know what they want until you show it to them.” Jobs was forward-thinking. But in addition, the products he sold at that time made his customers happy. The point of his quote was to look ahead and understand what people will want. That didn’t come from guesswork. And as much as he claimed he didn’t rely on market research, he had to have a reference point that helped make his decisions. It was past and present data that gave him insights to anticipate his customers’ future expectations. He also had intuition. He was gifted in that way.
I recently discussed understanding the future customer with Zee Hussain, AT&T’s global head of enterprise solutions, on an episode of Amazing Business Radio. We talked about how most customer conversations focus on today’s problems. Hussain believes the best companies also have conversations about tomorrow’s opportunities. He calls these “Future Meetings,” and they focus less on current products and more on where the customers’ business is headed. The goal is to understand what customers want, even if they don’t yet know themselves.
Hussain also referenced a forward-thinking business icon, Henry Ford, founder of Ford Motor Company, who is often credited with saying, “If I asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.” Whether Ford said it or not, the point is valid. Customers often describe improvements to the present, while innovators focus on creating the future.
If you want to understand future customers, you first have to understand today’s customers. That means listening carefully to what customers say, what employees hear and what customers actually experience on the front line. And where to start? Ask and observe them! However, there are several (at least) ways to go about it.
When you talk to customers about how happy they are with the company’s product and experience, you get a benchmark for today. This is important, and you must continue to do so. It works until one day in the future when you realize that what you’ve always been doing—what’s always made customers happy—becomes what used to make them happy. By that time, it’s either too late or you end up having to spend a lot of time, effort and money to catch up with the competition.
The way to avoid the “used to make them happy” problem is what Hussain calls the Future Meeting, a conversation about where your customers’ business is going, not where it is today. You want to continue meeting your customers’ current needs and expectations today while also learning what they will want tomorrow. The Future Meeting is about innovation and forward-thinking conversations.
For the Future Meeting concept to work, you must be more than a vendor. You must become a partner. Partnership is a vendor relationship on steroids. A big difference between being a vendor and a partner is trust. As a partner, you become your customers’ trusted advisor. They look to you for confirmation that they are making good decisions today and into the future. And while it might be nice to have the foresight of a Steve Jobs, to practice future thinking, more than anything, you must dive deep into your customers’ world. That means you know them, their customers, their competition and their industry.
Your depth of knowledge about everything related to your customers’ business will earn you a seat at their table. It is then that your insights will be respected and trusted.
Final Words
The companies that succeed in the future won’t wait for customers to tell them what’s next. They will study their customers’ behavior, pay attention to what's happening on the front line, understand where their customers’ industries are headed and have conversations about the future before competitors do. That doesn’t mean that current needs aren’t important. It means balancing today’s expectations with tomorrow’s opportunities. Hussain emphasizes that the goal isn’t to become a vendor. It’s to become each customer’s trusted advisor who helps them succeed in the future, even before they see it themselves.
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