Solving the "Customer-In" vs "Vendor-Out" Conundrum

Earlier today I had a brief email exchange with my longtime colleague Geoffrey Moore on a question that has not only perplexed me for years but that appears to have become more, rather than less, acute over time. This exchange was occasioned by Geoffrey's latest LinkedIn post on Rethinking the Customer Journey (https://lnkd.in/gkmzuPUW).

In his post, Geoffrey offers a stark reminder that much of the marketing literature today that discusses the customer's buying journey misses the mark, because in many or even most cases, what marketers and sales teams present to prospects and customers is a poorly disguised vendor journey that more often than not will alienate rather than engage the listener.

The question I raised with Geoffrey is this: Why do CEOs, marketers and salespeople find it so hard - even impossible in many cases - to adopt a customer-in perspective in their literature, their sales pitches, and consequently their allocation of resources to close deals, implement their products and services, and ensure that their customers stay with them?

After all, there is an increasingly large body of literature these days preaching about how best to engage customers using customer-in thinking. Geoffrey makes the point that "financial metrics inevitably predispose one to think inside out rather than outside in because everyone is trying to 'make the number'.”? He goes on to say: "This gets particularly strong when either the category is flattening and margins are commoditizing or when the macro economy is flagging and companies are not making plan".

As one who has authored a number of posts in recent years on this broad issue of customer-in marketing, sales, and customer success, and also worked with dozens of client teams to help them improve their effectiveness in engaging target customers, I still find myself struggling with the sheer stubbornness of this challenge.

What I've concluded is best summarized in these three points:

1. Going a little deeper to try and understand why it is that otherwise smart and dedicated execs cannot bring themselves to adopt a customer-in perspective, train their marketing and sales teams appropriately, fund customer success properly, and so on, I’ve concluded that dislodging a product-centric paradigm is virtually impossible for many tech people.
2. This is particularly so since tech companies are so heavily staffed by engineers and other technology-focused individuals.? They might acknowledge that a customer-in approach makes sense, but, with few exceptions, they just can’t make the switch toward developing insights about what really drives prospective clients to adopt their technology and staffing their organization accordingly, rather than continuing to build more features.?
3. At the core, I think for many execs, marketers and sales teams there’s a strong conceptual blockage - an inability to accommodate vendor-out and customer-in thinking at the same time, and to be aware when you are operating in one mode vs the other. It's okay to manage your sales funnel toward closing deals, but it's often futile to do so without first getting a clear understanding of your prospect's buying motivation.

At this point, I haven't managed to crack this problem but would welcome your feedback...

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