Growth Is About Progress

You may believe that your business is not changing but is that true for your customers? How do you know? How will changes they are experiencing impact your business?

Contributing to a customer’s growth is the most sustainable means of building enduring relationships that help your business thrive. Growth is about progress, and progress requires navigating change to succeed now and in the future. Change cultivates innovation, which then enables progress.

According to Clayton Christensen’s book, “Competing Against Luck,” customers define innovation as “a new offering that resolves a challenge and fulfills an aspiration.”

How are benefits generated by your products or services resolving a key customer’s challenge and fulfilling an aspiration? How are you helping a customer progress? How are your offerings stimulating your customer’s growth? How are they strengthening your customer’s competitive advantage?

Answering these questions requires that you discover why customers choose your offerings to help them progress. What goals are you helping them achieve? What jobs are they “hiring” your products or services to do?

In his book, Mr. Christensen describes how this “Jobs to be Done” concept can accelerate a customer’s progress, and boost your growth. Understanding what job a key customer hires your product or service to accomplish strengthens your knowledge about your customer’s strategies and aspirations. This awareness should change your business, reengineering how you innovate, operate, and market your products or services, dramatically improving your ability to create premium offerings that customers are eager to buy.