An inventor who dreams of making hundreds, even thousands of sales must be very in tune with what the customers want. More than that, he almost has to have an instinct of knowing what they want even before they do. Now figuring this bit out is not as easy as it seems, namely for a number of reasons. These days, customers have so many brands to choose from, making them less loyal, and even savvier shoppers. Customers are also more diverse than ever, creating challenges in what was once simple demographic segregation. To gain a client, despite all of these challenges will need a lot of hard work. Here are some tips that may help you do that:
- You have to really put yourself in your customer’s shoes- When you do this, do so honestly, and don’t be so naïve. You have to really examine how much he earns, and therefore, how much he is willing to spend. You also have to take a look at his wealth of choices and see what he would choose if he were having practical considerations. When you gain this insight, you also learn a lot about your competitor and figure out where you can position yourself in the market.
- Go through a regular customer experience- You will never know what a customer goes through until you have gone through it yourself. So, if you already have an invention that is out in the market, try to get it “normally”. Was it easy for you to get the product? Was it easily available? How was customer service? How was shipping time (if applicable)? It’s factors like this that can also help decide a customer if he wants to buy a product or not. Do remember that for every product out there, there is bound to be a review of the whole purchasing experience, which can really influence other potential customers.
- Learn with your customers- The longer your product is in the market, the more reviews about it will trickle in. It is not your job to take these reviews and learn from them. As your customer is learning about your product, you have to do the same thing too. Take the most common experiences and use this as feedback so that you can implement some improvements on the next versions of that same product that will come out.
We admit that it can be uncomfortable to go out of what you have been used to just to understand your customers, but the truth is, if you want to be successful, this really needs to be done. So go out there, and try to do these things. You may be surprised with the insight that you come back with. Don’t let these insights just stay as insights too. Do what you can to apply these lessons to either the product itself, or the company, and you will be rewarded with happy and even more customers.
