Jun 2009
Knowing your market is not just for business
Why is this the case? Did America and its academic standards and practices just become “stupid” or obsolete overnight?
No...the reality is that this was not something that has taken place overnight but rather has taken place over the last number of years. In my opinion, the issue is that the academic system has grown more and more out of touch with their target market and the “customers” of their solution. Think about this....the purpose of the academic system is to train and educated people so that they may be marketable, and can go off into the world in order to make a positive impact on society and the world as a whole. However, the world has been changing over the last number of years, and it seems that many of these academic institutions have not been paying attention this change and have not adapted in order to meet their “customers” needs. The academic institutions have not taken the time to work with the “customers” who will be buying (hiring) the students who are leaving the school. They have not taken the time to spend time with the companies in the industry to better understand their changing requirements, their needs, and where they feel their needs are going to be in the future. As a result of all of this, they have produced graduates which companies feel are “unemployable” for various reasons.
Now, not all academic institutions fall into this category. Take Carleton University and the Talent First Network here in Ottawa Canada. Under the leadership of Dr. Tony Bailetti, they have released a program called the Lead To Win. Although this does not fit with the typical scenario of recruiting students from secondary schools, this program is an example of knowing your market and what it truly needs. The Lead To Win program knows that entrepreneurs and new companies are vital to the community around them. They understand that by creating new companies in a region, not only does it attract more money which helps the overall economy, it also creates new jobs, new investment money, etc. The Lead To Win program is open to anyone in the community who would like to start a new business. The people and companies selected for this program are put through some intense training by not only the academic institution, but also by leaders within the industry who have “done it in the past”. As part of the program, they also put in place a system to help the graduating companies to get their first set of paying customers and also assist with introductions and preparations for gaining investment money, etc. The result of this program on the last go around in 2002 was the creation of over 300 new jobs and over $90 Million in investment money.
The Lead To Win program is a perfect example of the benefits of being in touch with your target audience and customers. It demonstrates that knowing your target markets needs, their issues, their future requirements is what separates a successful academic or training program from an unsuccessful one. This is a fundamental truth for everyone and every organization and is just as important to the educational market as it is to the business market.
It is not too late for change. So, if you are someone that is involved in the world of education, then the best thing you can do today is to take the time to better understand your target market, and get out and talk with them. If you are a charity, then get out there and talk to your target market to understand their needs....If you are an individual who is looking for a job.....again get out and talk to some people within the market where your skills are required. And finally, if you are a company or business get out and to speak with your customers and potential customers today to ensure you and your solutions do not become obsolete and “unemployable” tomorrow.
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Bridging the gap...
A few hours later I started to think about this statement a bit more. There were a few things that started to jump out at me regarding the statement. In regards to market analysis, there are many organizations and people that can help a company to do this important and necessary exercise. Anyone can easily analyze the market, strategies, pricing models, competitors....anything. On the flip side of this coin, commercialization is just as important to any business as the reality is that you do not have a business until you release your product or service to the market for people to purchase.
Now the interesting part of this is that the “bridging” is the key to success. You can do analysis on many different aspects of your business, but it is not until you cross the bridge to commercialization does any of that matter. Also, you can take any idea to market if you have enough persistence, time, and money, however it is not until you cross the bridge to connecting it with your market analysis (a true understanding of your target market, and their needs) do you truly begin to make profitable, repeatable, and predictable sales results.
So, take some time to think about this analogy and determine if you have built a good bridge for this gap within your company. If you are not sure if you have a bridge or even if you need to update or fix your bridge, the only true indicator is in your sales results. If sales are on track and you are making money....chances are you have built a good bridge. If however you are not seeing the results that you desire, then the first thing you need to do is see if your product or services (commercialization) is cut off and isolated from your target market, their requirements, and their needs (market analysis). If your not quite sure where to go or how to do this....then give us a call as we have already built a number of these bridges for our clients already.
It is all about the experience
Just to set the stage for you....my contact has phoned in to inquire about potentially signing on for this companies service. He tells me of the painful process of even getting signed up in the beginning as they had to do a credit check, they had to verify his home network setup, etc. When he was done this initial call he felt that everything was now in order and all he had to do was to wait for the software required for the ability to run the VOIP service on his laptop to show up.
A couple of days later, the door bell rings and sure enough there is the new VOIP system. He went and started to install the system onto his laptop and that is when the problems began. To make a long story short, after several calls to the support organization they then decided to tell him that their VOIP software would not work on his machine because of the version of the operating system he was using. Now well beyond frustrated he then got passed back to the original customer service department he had dealt with in the beginning and they confirmed that the operating system he was using was not supported. Rightfully so, he then asked to speak with the manager due to the fact that they should have asked him in the beginning what operating system he was using which would have saved a great deal of frustration and valuable time. When the manager came on the line, my contact explained to him the sequence of events along with the frustration he was feeling....and the response from the manager of the customer service team was - “Yes, that OS is not supported, so what would you like me to do about it?”
So, here are some of the things that I would like you to think about regarding this story:
1. Do you think that this company spoke with many real life customers before they made a decision to build a solution that does not support one of the most used operating systems in the world?
2. Do you think that this company ever spoke to a real-life customer to better understand how they would like to have the solution delivered to them? (Lets face it...it is software which could be downloadable and does not require a physical shipment which requires the customer to wait days in order to receive)
3. Do you think that this company was concerned about creating a positive experience with their customers or do you think that they are more focused on getting their money?
4. Do you think that this company has ever done an audit or “mystery shopper” type of activity to truly put themselves in their customers shoes in order to experience the buying process their customers go through when buying their solution?
5. Do you think that the company really wants to have a customer support organization that states “....what would you like me to do about it?”
6. Do you think that either myself or any of the other people that my contact has told about this experience will ever voluntarily buy from this company again?
7. Would you buy from this company?
Finally....when was the last time you did an “audit” to truly understand the experience your customers are getting from you, your company, and the process they have to go through to either buy your solution or to get support when they run into issues? You only have one chance to make a positive impression....and there are big consequences for not providing the right experience for your customers.