We
spend a lot of our time and energy as traders trying to find what our customers
want but there is a good body of work that suggests we might become more profitable by doing
something else.
Henry
Ford had a famous saying - “If I had asked people
what they wanted, they would have said faster horses". He suggests we shouldn't be asking our
customers what they want but rather finding things they hadn't thought of –
things that might do a better job of meeting their needs.
Steve
Jobs, the inspirational leader of Apple, used to talk about designing products
that customers hadn't thought of - "This is what
customers pay us for - to sweat all these details so it's easy and pleasant for
them to use our computers. We're supposed to be really good at this. That
doesn't mean we don't listen to customers, but it's hard for them to tell you
what they want when they've never seen anything remotely like it."
If
you design or make your own products then this concept has particular relevance
but what about the grand body of retailing that is buying and selling other
people's goods? Well, you can probably apply the same philosophy to your range
of goods and the way you merchandise. Finding new products and new ways of
displaying can open up opportunities for your customers that they may never
have thought of. And the beauty of operating a small business is that we can
experiment to our hearts content without taking huge financial risks.
So
rather than asking customers what they want perhaps we should be doing the hard
work, thinking outside the square, and finding things that will excite them in
a whole lot of new ways.