Yaroslav Danylchenko/Stocksy
Researchers analyzed data from more than 1,000 customer-centricity transformation projects over the past 25 years. They found that only 15% of CEOs and sales teams have a customer-centric strategy. Most run their company or customer relationships based on a product-focused mindset, which puts the onus on finding a market to sell one’s products to, rather than orchestrating growth together with customers. Instead, firms should ask three key questions to ensure customer centricity: Are our strategic objectives and transformation efforts aligned with our customers’ priorities? Are our solutions-design and deployment efforts configured based on customer-validated input? And, are our organizational setup and investments allocated to customer commitments for mutual success?
If you were to ask a CEO how customer-centric their strategy is, they’ll likely tell you that it is a work in progress. Rarely will CEOs tell you that their strategy works seamlessly or that it is in serious trouble. For our upcoming book, Triple Fit Strategy: How to Build Lasting Customer Relationships and Boost Growth (Harvard Business Review Press 2024), we analyzed data from more than 1,000 customer-centricity transformation projects over the past 25 years.
Source: Harvard business.org | Published: 2024-10-01 12:25:00