Latest / From Stalled to Scaling / The Storage Bin
Transcript
- Jim Tincher, HoC: When I was 12 years old, my dad showed me a storage bin. And in doing so, he taught me everything I needed to know about customer-focused growth. Unfortunately, it took me about 30 years to understand just what I'd seen. Hello, I'm Jim Tincher, and this is from Stalled to Scaling: 8-minute ideas for B2B growth leaders on growing to the customers they already have. My dad designed Winnebagos for 40 years. We grew up in Forest City, Iowa, the home of Winnebagos. When I was six, he asked me if I wanted to tour the plant. Would I? We got in the station wagon, drove to Winnebago, and he brought me to the very start of the assembly line. Jim, we start with the chassis, which we buy for another company, and then we build the Winnebago on top of it. Part by part we walked the assembly line as the Winnebega was built. I could hear the pride of my dad's voice. And I thought, wow, my dad has a cool job. We did that tour every year. Yet when I was 12, the question was different. Jim, would you like to see my newest innovation? It will change motorhomes forever. So we drove out to the plant and instead of the usual building, we turned towards a new one with more secure and to keep the newest innovations. I ran inside the motorhome and looked around. What could it be? A television, new seats? No, Jim, it's outside. So I ran around the Winnebago looking for something new, like different lights. No, Jim, it's down here. I looked down and saw a storage bin. Dad could see that 12-year-old Jim was not impressed. So he pulled me aside. Jim, 12-year-olds don't buy Winnebagos. The parents and grandparents of 12-year-olds buy Winnebagos. And they have different needs. And here, I was about to receive some coaching that informs me to this very day. My job is to understand the customer's needs so well, I can develop solutions before they even know they have a problem. This storage bin is going to change our customer experience because it lets them put an entire golf cart in the Winnebago. And nobody else lets them do that. It's my job to really stay abreast of what a customer's needs, again so I can develop the solutions before they ever know they have a problem. My dad did that with Instinct and 40 years working for Winnebago. Now you can't hire Instinct, you can't put in a forecast. So I've spent my career on the other half of that problem. Every company I talk to wants one thing, and that's growth. Would you rather get it from the customers they already have or from a market you have to go out and buy? Clearly the answer is to grow to existing customers. But then they measure that base with a satisfaction score, which tells them how last quarter felt and would they walk into the new year with no leading indicator at all. And here's what I've learned over 14 years with Heart of the Customer. You can measure a customer relationship in a way that predicts growth. Your own customer data, done right, will tell you before the behaviors change which accounts are about to grow with you. Which ones are about to shrink? That's the leading indicator you and your fellow executives have been asking your team for. And most companies don't know that it's sitting there. That's what this show is about. 818 interviews with B2B customers about why they give a supplier more work or less of it. 34 interviews and counting with C-suite executives about how they decide what to prioritize. A benchmark across 17 manufacturers and distributors and about 10,000 customer responses on how they decide whether to grow or shrink with a supplier. And real examples for real companies doing this work. If you own a growth number and most of your revenue sits at accounts you already have, then you're my customer. And this show is for you. So let me close with a tincher truth. There are over a hundred tincher truths from the experience and the research I have on the B2B experience and growth. Tinger Truth number 77. Most growth targets assume you're keeping what you already have. You probably are not. Your customers don't leave, they shrink quietly. And while you're spending money on acquisition, revenue is walking through the back door. Your best source of truth, your best source of revenue is your existing customers. And it is possible to measure that. But not through using leftovers from B2C, not from trying to use net promoter score, not from trying to use customer satisfaction, but to understand what truly matters from your customers and what you can change in order to. And every episode's going to have an assignment. So here's today's assignment. Take the last five changes your company built or changed for customers. And new products, service or policy changes, anything you put real money behind. And then make two columns. In the first column, put those changes the customer asked you for. Or one that your research was inspired. Something that came from the outside. In the second, put the ones you saw coming before anybody asked. It's only five marks, you take you less than ten minutes, and you already know the answers. Then count the second column, because that's the part of your growth you're creating, rather than just waiting for it to happen. My name is Jim Titcher. You can find the full research at heartofthecustomer.com, as well as blogs, posts, and all kinds of white papers. And so, my last request, your feedback request. What landed? What didn't? And what should I take on next? As well as which of your columns is longer? I want to grow this podcast through you, through your feedback. And so I want to hear from you. Jim at heart of the customer.com. This is your path. This is what we want. And how do we grow through our existing customers?