It's Good For Me, Must Be Good For You

What would you think of a company that pressures customers to purchase a more expensive item just to get a less expensive one? Schrewd? Machievellian? Perhaps, just plain out of touch with their customers. It's okay to rant a little here because today I am talking about the phone company. There was a time that many of us loved to hate Ma Bell... and many feel the same way about her descendants.

The story goes that someone at Verizon Wireless trained their salesforce to tell customers that all phones of a certain type require the purchase of an expensive service plan -- when apparently this is not the whole story. Customers who push back (eventually) discover much flexibility in this hardball story. Despite a good product, someone at Verizon appears to have made the calculation that an "its good for me, must be good for you" attitude enhances their bottom line. Question is, what does it contribute to the company's longer term success?

Management icon Peter Drucker suggests that a focus on sales pressure does little to grow an organization's prospects for success. "Customers pay," he says, "only for what is of use to them and gives them value." Organizations pay a price when they do not take a customer-centric view. It seems that revenue comes not from extracting more dollars from each customer, rather from offering solutions for which customers will enthusiastically pay.

Companies like Google, Apple and even Microsoft have flourished by by getting outside their own skins and into the heads of the marketplace. As a result, the world has access to eons of information on demand that is easy to use, access and manage. In large ways, and small, organizations can create greater value for those who they serve.

What process, product, technology or tool can you invent or improve to better serve your customers? The bottom line is waiting.