By MIKE GORDON,CHRIS MUSSO, ERIC REBENTISCH And NISHEETH GUPTA
“Is your company finding it hard to develop new products? If so, you might try learning from the masters.”
The Wall STREET Journal Report
Originally, I when I first posted this article, I really wanted everyone to just read it; I didn’t realize I probably should add my “2 Cents” in terms of “my thoughts” on the concept.
Sometimes when we are the marketing team taking a product to market, we become so consumed by the actual product, we lose focus on the customer. The costumer relationship that the outside marketing team is building is imperative to the long-term productivity of the team.
While, it seems obvious to us that we need to put the customer’s needs as the highest priority, sometimes people tend to obsess about the actual marketing plan and product and lose the human touch of interacting with the customer at a human level.
With modern technology, email, cell phones, texting, etc…we often cease to actually meet, brainstorm and create together. When we do this, it becomes a collaboration that we are all invested in. According to this article, by focusing on these relationships, product deadlines tend to be met, customers continue to retain your services and employees are happier.
“We found—after surveying more than 300 employees at 28 companies across North America and Europe—that the businesses with the best product-development track records do three things better than their less-successful peers: They create a clear sense of project goals early on, they nurture a strong project culture in their workplace, and they maintain close contact with customers throughout a project’s duration.”
The teams in our study that embraced these tactics were 17 times as likely as the laggards to have projects come in on time, five times as likely to be on budget, and twice as likely to meet their company’s return-on-investment targets.”
So, everyone, don’t forget the customer reigns supreme. The product is an extension of the customer.