How to meet the unrecognized needs of your customers

Meeting your customers' unrecognized needs drives positive word of mouth for your brand.

(here's last week's email on this topic, in case you missed it)

To meet your customer's unrecognized needs, you need to know what business you're in.

Management consultant Peter Drucker would ask executives: "What business are you in?"

For example:

• Starbucks isn't in the business of selling coffee. They're in the customer service business (according to its CEO Howard Shultz).

• Apple isn't in the business of selling phones. They're in the coolness business.

• At my last company, Scorpion, we sold websites and lead generation to attorneys. We were in the trusted advisor business. Our attorney clients hired us so they could focus on what they do best, argue and win cases.

I encourage you to explore the question for your business: "What business are we in?"

Once you know the answer, then deliver that value to your customers.

Because the more you can deliver value at the level of meeting customers' unrecognized needs, the more loyalty and word of mouth you'll enjoy.