What your customer isn’t telling you: results

Have you ever bought something in earnest only to find yourself unimpressed two weeks later? And after a few years you find it under a pile of papers in a box in the back of a closet?

We all buy things we don’t really need even though, in the heat of the moment, we really want to have them. A year ago I was excited about fitness watches. Then, I got one and realized it wasn’t going to do anything to help me improve my fitness.

Sometimes you sell things to your customers, believing it’ll have an impact. Sometimes your customer asks you to do things, believing it’ll have an impact. Regardless who generated the excitement, at the end of the day, the investment doesn’t pan out. And regardless why, your customer ends up paying for something that wasn’t worth it.

Over time this can really add up. Are your customers in a position where the work you do for them tends to cost more than it’s worth? Are there substantial losses such that your customer doesn’t see enough value in what you do for them, even if you do exactly what they ask for?

Chances are, if you aren’t proactive about understanding results and what they’re worth to your customer, you’re doing a lot of work that’s not worth it. Unfortunately it usually takes a long history of this before customers speak up about about it. There are many reasons for this.