Customer development by Seth Godin
by Parker · 14 things on Twos
- https://p.feedblitz.com/r3.asp?l=179313173&f=1081591&c=7789921&u=55703776
- Develop a group of people who are changed by what they do
- Failure is a way of discovering one more thing that customers didn’t want, and perhaps, learning a bit about what they might want
- By iterating without tears or fears, organizations are able to discover things about their future customers
- It’s so important to identify your smallest viable audience. The smallest group of customers that will enable you to thrive. By seeing them, obsessing about them and serving them, you can refine your product at the very same time that you establish the conditions for growth
- You’ve built the network effect into your offering, so that it works even better when people tell their friends and colleagues
- When you create a purple cow, the remarkable nature of your product or service is in fact part of the reason people buy it, and the reason they talk about it. Not because it helps you, but because it helps them
- Your success at serving this small but viable audience gives you the team, the cash flow and most of all, the social proof to begin to find a different set of customers. Customers that might want a different set of benefits, a different story, a different way to change
- You’re telling a story
- You’re making a change
- Being clear about ‘who’s it for?’ and ‘what’s it for?’ is the actual hard work of developing customer
- If you’re not gaining traction, deciding to hype harder is not the right choice
- Traction doesn’t come from more social posting or working your network and asking for favors. Traction comes from accompanying the customers you’ve chosen on a journey that they’re eager to go on
- The hard work of customer development is finding a reason for your customers to bring in new customers, or discovering a path where you can help non-customers discover what you offer and eagerly engage with it