discover your customer elevator rant for u. of md dingman center
TRANSCRIPT
@londoninkBob London President & Founder London, Ink
U of MD Dingman Center Entrepreneur in Residence
Discovering Your Customers’
“Elevator Rant”
Listening > Insights > Growth
@londonink
Adam, I brought you a small token of my
appreciation.
@londonink
An elegant, hand-carved frame made of the finest and rarest Brazilian teak!
I even autographed it!
Featuring my patented “casual-jacket-thrown-over-the-shoulder” pose!
Full color!
@londonink
That’s more like it!
@londonink
That’s more like it!
Dingman Center
Intergalactic HQ
Wait…even better!
@londonink
Too Many Companies Have the Wrong Perspective:Their Own
@londonink7
“How companies talk past their customers”
“The themes that many companies consider important for brand imaging appear to have minimal influence on buyers’ perceptions of brand strength.”
@londonink8
The Disconnect Between Marketers & Buyers
@londonink
@londonink
THIS IS AN ELEVATOR RANT
@londonink
THIS IS AN ELEVATOR RANT
@londonink
THIS IS AN ELEVATOR RANT
@londonink
What’s Important from the Customers’ Perspective
HOW DO WE KNOW
?TRY ASKING THE
CUSTOMER
@londonink
Wait, I’m an entrepreneur!
Shouldn’t I go with my vision and passion rather than just listen to
what the customer wants?
@londonink
Your Vision
What People Will Actually
Buy
What People Say They
Want
$$$
@londonink16
Great Ways to Learn Your Customers’ Perspective
Follow them around for a day.
Watch them use your product or service.
Concierge demoQuantitative
surveys*One-on-one
interviews
@londonink
Software Case Study, Part 1Using 1 on 1 interviews to figure out why a
product isn’t selling
17
We have a cloud management
platform!Zzzzz…
(yawn)…#platitude
s
Is there one
problem it solves really well?
Many features to help you manage your
complex cloud environment.
It’s like a programmable light switch to turn off
your idle cloud servers…saving $000’s.
Cool. Can I just buy that
feature…not the whole platform?
ELEVATOR RANT
@londonink
Software Case Study, Part 1Using 1 on 1 interviews to figure out why a
product isn’t selling
18
We have a cloud management
platform!Zzzzz…
(yawn)…#platitude
s
Is there one
problem it solves really well?
Many features to help you manage your
complex cloud environment.
It’s like a programmable light switch to turn off
your idle cloud servers…saving $000’s.
Cool. Can I just buy that
feature…not the whole platform?
ELEVATOR RANT
TIME TO PIVOT!From Swiss Army Knife
to Meat Cleaver
@londonink
Software Case Study, Part 2Using “concierge demos” to
iron out the UX/UI
19
We’d like you to use the product while we watch and ask
questions. OK.
Sure.We’ll even give you a branded hoodie!
ParkMyCloud:Idea to Revenue in 10 Weeks
1st Multi-national customer within 2 weeks of launch; 75 sign ups to date
@londonink
YOUR TURNShare an Example of How You
Listened to Customers and Used the Insights to Improve Your Product or
Service
