Focus on the CUSTOMER not the competitor - Jeff Raikes

Many companies are obsessed with a competitor when they should be obsessively focused on their customers. It is a common mistake made by companies large and small. The Guardian Unlimited has a fascinating interview with Jeff Raikes, President of Microsoft Business Division. The interview covers a wide range of topics including Apple, Visicalc, Sharepoint, Office, Live online apps, Bill Gates, software piracy, and others. But, I came away with one big thought that applies to all businesses "don't be obsessed with a competitor, stay focused on the customer".

Startups often get obsessed with beating the market leader, watching every move they make, targeting their marketing messages at trashing the competitor, trying to hire key employees, and basically building a company culture of "us against them". Big companies do it too. The ego of big company CEOs drives them to beat the competition. I'm sure you can think of examples in every market segment.

Customers have their own business to worry about and they want solutions to their problems, at a reasonable price, that are easy to use, and work well with what they already have. Customers don't care that a particular product is open source, shared source, out-sourced, sole sourced, or anything else. The Open Source guys get all wound up about the difference between GPL3 vs GPL2 vs Creative Commons vs every other type of license. Customers really don't care about that. Customers want the best solution to their problem at a reasonable price.

Jeff Raikes says "The reason is, people get very focused in on trying to undermine Microsoft and they don't get very focused in on the customer." In response to a question about Office and online versions of the same functionality Jeff said "the thing that will probably trip people up is they'll get focused on the idea that that's a replacement for the Office suite, when what's most interesting are the new and unique scenarios that you can get by having that capability. But then, it's our responsibility to make sure that our customers have access to those services as part of their use of Office tools. It's about software and services, as opposed to services versus software."

Technology Focus is another problem. How many times have you listened to a company pitch its product or service and watched them get totally wound up about the technology or the "how", and completely ignore the customer benefits? It happens all the time.

Focus on the customer and you can't go wrong. This is a great lesson for businesses large and small, and one that we sometimes need to learn over and over again. In the many startups I have worked at I have always tried to, ask the customer, unprompted by self serving questions, what problem they are trying to solve. Believe it or not, some customers don't have the problem you are trying to solve, or they already have a satisfactory (to them) solution to it. If so, move on...don't waste your time. Don't try to convince the customer they really DO have the problem you solve. This is another common mistake of startup sales people. I have done it myself...many times.

Listen to the customer, truly listen to what they are saying. Not just one big customer, listen to hundreds of customers and look for patterns. Build your product and your marketing around the common customer themes. Don't focus on the competitor. Don't take the battle to their turf...you will most likely lose. Remember one of my favorite cliche's... In a fight between a grizzly bear and an alligator, the terrain determines the victor. Listen to the customer and keep the battle on your turf.

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Comments

[Olivier Ezratty]

Hi Don,

Well, this makes a lot of sense. But my observation (particularly after having spent 15 years at MS) is that MS is way too much focused on its competitors. The last two big examples are its obsessive fight against Google and the launch of Zune. In those cases, it tends to play catch up and not innovate enough to change the playground. Obviously, MS can win in the long term thanks to its big pockets. But at what cost! Certainly, not an optimum one.

Another point is that listening to customers is indeed a goog thing but it may lead to create only incremental innovations, not disruptive ones. MS is listening a lot to its customers, particularly in the corporate space. It tends to slow down its ability to change things profundly because these customers are every conservative.

[MohanKumar Desai]

I Agree,

But still the biggest companies do it.
The reason, depends on the situation with the customer. Coming to your point it is very important to know what customer is looking for. Most of the customers wants to know the differences and additional features they get with any product and sometimes they demand for technical comparision of products.We should not forget that the competitor has a product which solves the issue of the customer.

I see it as situation based. Its always a good idea to know what is going around.We should be dynamic to understand the situation and pitch in with relevant info to sell...

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[Brian Hayashi]

If your goal is to create value, I couldn't agree more. Not only does this focus help clarify the overall mission, but it helps sell in the technology: are you doing something *for* somebody, or are you doing something *to* somebody?

Users are more apt to share their deepest insights when they feel you are in their corner. Compare this to the attitude from someone who feels that you're just creating something else they'll have to learn how to use.

If you are truly good at delivering something for people, there will always be smaller minded people who will try to take what you have. Accepting that notion is the first step to the kind of humility that engenders true success.

(And as far as MSFT goes...back in the mid-90s, I seem to remember a time MSFT was less focused on its competitors, and contrary to popular belief, I really thought they *got* the Internet thing. Their downfall was they truly believed that Office was going to be the dominant Internet application...and were "somewhat" surprised when Netscape somehow managed to replace DOC with HTML. Then again, I've also heard that hindsight is 20/20...)

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