The chemistry of business success

I am taking a different course and going to write this post outside of my comfort zone. I am always fascinated by new technologies and new markets. And at the same time intrigued by the fact that traditional human connections never seem to go out of fashion and are still the foundation of success.

I question that as we get more technologically advanced, the obvious fact would have been to drive new business opportunities using new communication channels, however, I believe that it has never been more important to have strong relationships in the business, meet customers and learn how their concerns are changing rapidly.

I feel that one thing that is the centre of business is a customer.

It is always about the customer. It is about learning what are their concerns. And more the technology shifts create market shifts, the more important is to stay close to your customer, learn and stay tuned to the changes that are impacting them.

Learning is about making new connections in the brain, it is about forging new synaptic connections. Nobel prize Laurette Kandal found that when people learn one bit of information they double the number of connections in their brain from 1300 to 2600. But if they didn’t review that information, those circuits disappeared within hours if not days.

Meeting customers and getting all of this information is knowledge. If knowledge is power, then knowledge about customers is customer success. But all this information is only good if you do something with it, personalize it, demonstrate it, align with your behaviors to match your intentions and only then can you create new customer experiences.

When building a SaaS BI solution company, which was a napkin concept at the start. I looked at the market and went after the long-tail customers, who couldn’t afford other options, who were not early adopters and who promised low-margins, the case of a typical disruptive technology. (Christian Clayton definition of disruptive technology)

I met customers constantly, stayed on road for months and asked then questions such as :

• How often do you use the dashboard
• How many users do create logins for?

Found out that they were giving dashboard access to their inside sales partners. So, the next step was to help them create those accounts for - FREE. Thereby, increasing adaption and usage of the product. Signing up 50+ publishers.

But the real deal is RETENTION.

And to that effect, I found in talking to customers that when they moved from one platform to another, they had to take data dumps along to have continuity in data insights. So, I worked with internal teams to help customers retain their data with us even if they moved from one platform to another - this created a retention mechanism.

The chemistry of business is making customer experiences so good that it is your second nature. Having the knowledge and acting on it - over and over. So, it becomes so easy that it comes to you naturally, to care!!