Warren Buffett famously said, “Be fearful when others are greedy and be greedy when others are fearful.” And you’d love nothing more than to be that kind of long-term thinker, willing to invest in the future when others are running for cover.

Of course, Buffett has his $60 billion fortune to cushion the risks associated with his maverick tendencies. You, on the other hand, are saddled with a shortage of cash and a coterie of colleagues who believe the right response to the recession is to hunker down, slash costs to the bone, and wait for the storm to pass.

What’s a frustrated would-be business-grower to do?

According to Dan Adams, you can aim for growth during a serious economic downturn. In fact, now is the perfect time to do so, while your competitors are distracted. You just need to consider alternate (read: cheaper) ways of going about it.

He offers five small-budget growth ideas you can use right now:

Tip #1: Find out what your customers really want—not what you want them to want. Profitable, sustainable organic growth starts when you have a deeper understanding of customers’ needs than your competitors.

If someone tells you otherwise, be careful: They might be misguided in other areas as well. Adams, who has coached hundreds of B2B new product teams through AIM, says when his clients begin using advanced methods to interview customers, they are usually surprised by what customers want.

This means they had been planning on developing a product that interested them, not their customers.

“No wonder the average hit rate for products under development is 1 in 4!” he says. “Companies are not using the right techniques to unearth true customer wants and needs.

But no one can afford to introduce failed products these days.”

Tip #2: Conduct customer interviews remotely. (It’s more effective than you think.) Jetting around to interview customers is understandably unpopular when travel restrictions are all the rage.

Adams suggests you consider the web conference-based customer interview, using a service such as Live Meeting, WebEx, or GoToMeeting.

Is this as effective as a face-to-face interview? Well, no. But it is better than no interview at all—and there are some benefits to interviewing customers remotely.

“For example, you can have more people ‘from your side’ in remote customer interviews than is comfortable or practical in a face-to-face interview,” notes Adams.

“And if the customer’s key buying influences—manufacturing, technical, marketing, and so forth—are located in different facilities, it’s much easier to have them all ‘at the meeting.’”
NOTE: For a free bulletin on making the most of web conference customer interviews, visit http://newproductblueprinting.com/vocviawebcon.

Tip #3: Get everyone listening to the voice of the customer. Some large firms keep a small staff of highly trained VOC (voice of the customer) experts poised for action.

These folks parachute into a project as dawn streaks the morning sky, interview your customers for you, and hand you a report of “what the customer wants.” This is a flawed model, says Adams.

Most businesses chalk up thousands of face-to-face customer meetings during the course of a year, as sales reps, technical service reps, and others go about their normal duties—so why not train these people to become VOC experts?

“They’ve already gained the customer’s trust, they know the customer’s language, and there’s no extra travel cost,” he points out. “Best of all, you’ll develop a reputation among customers as ‘that supplier who really listens to us.’

Now that’s how to protect today and position for tomorrow. So keep that handful of experts… but let them become trainers and coaches for the masses, not primary interviewers.”

Tip #4: Use OPK (other people’s knowledge). “I have a lot of very smart clients, yet many are stuck in the past in important areas,” says Adams. “Why?

There are two reasons: First, more work is being required of fewer employees. Most of us want two things out of our jobs—to contribute and to learn—but in today’s pressure cooker, there is little time to learn and apply fresh thinking. Second, useful knowledge is exploding.

Tomorrow: Part Two: Five ways to keep up with the information explosion.

Dan Adams, president of Advanced Industrial Marketing, Inc. He is a chemical engineer and holder of many patents and innovation awards, including a listing in the National Inventors Hall of Fame. Adams was head of strategic planning for a billion-dollar company and has extensive experience in Fortune 500 marketing, business development, and leadership positions.

For more information see: www.newproductblueprinting.org

 

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