The real experts led them to success

THE PRINCIPLE

The people who use what you make are the people to listen to

Chris Miller is the founder and Chief Creative Officer of Earth Products, a highly successful action sports clothing and accessories company. He is a former professional skateboarder, so he’s in direct touch with what the market wants. But he says his biggest business secret is that he also relies on current professional athletes to give him input on product design and the marketing of his brands.

That doesn’t sound like such a breakthrough idea – after all, almost every sports-related business has some high-profile athlete as a spokesperson. But Miller says that his company doesn’t get just endorsements, they get specific feedback and ideas for improving the products. Furthermore, they ask not only pros but also top-level regional and local athletes, who are very influential on the entire market.

Why do so few businesses really pay attention to this kind of feedback? Possibly because by the time the feedback comes in, the product is so far into development that making changes would be very expensive.

You can avoid falling into that trap by consulting your potential customers or clients at all the stages of your development. You can use surveys, questionnaires, discussion groups and online forums as a way to harvest input that will make the difference between failure and success.

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