Look at it from your customers’ viewpoint.

     “Looking at things from a different perspective is the key source of Creativity.

     This is especially valuable when that perspective is that of your customer’s.”

Michael Barrett, “Where Profitable Ideas Come From”

• SEE ‘hidden’ sales barriers
• SEE ideas for improvement opportunities
• SEE solutions to problems or barriers to improvement
• SEE ideas for new products, services, and campaigns

♦  Amazon: virtually doubled sales from ONE Customer-Focused idea: “If you like this, you’ll also like these”. Simple idea - very little cost - massive impact on sales.

♦  Apple: with the iPod, Apple sensed an unmet need and applied its creativity and design flair to add value. It sold 1.5 bn downloads from 65,000 ‘Apps’ in year one.

♦  Tesco: achieved phenomenal growth by developing a brand that is so trusted by customers that the company can sell them virtually anything, even a house!

♦ Ryanair: despite its reputation for not caring too much about customers Ryanair has in fact focused on the chief reason why many customers buy plane tickets - low price. They are a classic example of what a lot of customers will 'put up with' if they perceive the cost to be low and that they are 'saving money'.

♦  Woolworths died a slow death. It was much too inward-looking and got stuck in a mental rut. You can’t last for ever if your best-selling products are Easter Eggs!

♦  Waterford Wedgewood got stuck in one strategic mindset out of sync with customers’ needs. Its products went out of fashion. Compare rival Villeroy & Boch which diversified into a wide range of product categories people actually wanted.

♦  eBay paid $4bn for Skype assuming customers would use it. They didn’t. “I didn’t see anything that connects the two” said one highly revealing customer blog.