What Will Your Customers Need? By: Lou Lasday

What Will Your Customers Need?

Tomorrow's customers are the only people who can tell you what they will require to consummate your next sale. They ask: "What will you do for me tomorrow?" Marketers in almost every type of business are under the gun to perform faster, better, cheaper, and at the same time, add costly extra value to the mix. What your customers will want "tomorrow" will look significantly different from what they wanted "yesterday."

Front-end load funds are discounting. Realtors are negotiating. Airlines give multiple-trip pricing on a single web page. Competing life insurance rates come on one bid sheet. Mortgage rates are quoted like Shakespeare - "as you like it." Cell phone users are given new equipment just to keep from switching. The playing field is level again; now at a lower profit level. Price alone, without value is meaningless. The challenge then, is to determine what your customers really want and how much additional will they pay to have you customize your otherwise commodity service.