Prevailing wisdom states that the unmet needs of your customers are the most productive source for “New Business Opportunities” or service ideas.
Others claim that relying on existing customers for your innovations can lead you to chase those customers “down the rabbit hole” of worthless concepts.
Customers are always a valuable source for potential innovations. Your relationship enables the sharing of unmet needs that are typically viable for their served markets – ideas you might not hear elsewhere. Since you must remain vigilant for new opportunities that can produce value for your customers and increase your sales, the risk associated with exploring potential innovations with your customers is low.
But current customers cannot be your exclusive source for unique, new products or services.
Relying only on customer requests to build your business blinds you to opportunities presented by the much larger audience of noncustomers. Customer-focused companies can get bogged down making small revisions to current customer products and miss the bold new answer to some unmet need visible in their larger served market. Since most small and midsize companies can’t afford to risk capital developing breakthrough products that have no proven market, attention must be paid to trends and players in your served market – who is winning and who is not? Why is this?
Finding extraordinary new opportunities involves collaborating with existing customers and probing the broader market for unmet needs. Determine your target markets and develop a comprehensive understanding of each market’s unresolved problems. Who is serving the market and what value do they provide to it? What needs remain unmet?
What is your process for evaluating new product/service opportunities from your customers?
Who is winning and who is not in your served markets? Why?
