You probably think you know your customers. But do you really understand what makes them tick? Getting genuine customer insight goes much deeper than looking at sales reports or demographics.
It is about finding the hidden reasons behind their choices. A true insight feels like a lightbulb moment, a sudden understanding that changes everything you thought you knew. This great insight is more than a gut feeling or a sixth sense; it is a grounded discovery.
This kind of discovery can feel elusive, but it is achievable. You will learn how to find that lightbulb moment for your own business. We will explore how to access insight that leads to meaningful results.
This is part of a series blogs based on my book, "Know What You Sell", available on Amazon. Ultimately, we developed the Free Inbound Marketing Assessment Scorecard to help you decide how to develop, position and successfully market your product or service. It takes less than 2 minutes and you get a customized report based on your answers which you can use as roadmap through the ever changing world of marketing and sales.
Most businesses collect a lot of data. You likely have information about who your customers are. You know their age, where they live, and what they have bought from you before.
This information is useful, of course. But it only tells you what is happening; it fails to explain the why. Relying on this data alone means you are missing the complete picture and the opportunity for growth.
This is the classic difference between correlation and causation. You might see that customers who buy product A also buy product B. That is a correlation, but it gives you zero insight into the real human motivation driving that behavior.
Think about your own reports from tools that track web traffic or a search insight. You can see sales trends, web traffic, and email open rates. These numbers feel solid and safe because they are measurable.
But they often lead to faulty assumptions. You might see a dip in engagement on social media and assume your content is boring. So you change your content strategy, but nothing improves because you misunderstood the core problem.
The problem was that you did not have the right insight into your customer's actual need. You treated a symptom instead of understanding the root cause. This is a common pitfall that keeps businesses from connecting with their audience in a meaningful way.
Let's talk about milkshakes for a minute. A fast-food chain wanted to sell more of them. They did the usual marketing activities.
They asked customers what would make the milkshakes better. People said they wanted them to be cheaper, chocolatier, or come in different sizes. The company made those changes, but sales stayed flat.
Frustrated, they brought in a researcher named Clayton Christensen. He and his team decided to do something different. They just watched people for hours.
They stood outside a store and observed everyone who bought a milkshake, acting as a human insight media channel. What they saw was surprising. A lot of people were buying milkshakes very early in the morning.
These customers were almost always alone. They got in their cars and drove away with their milkshakes. This did not fit the picture of a milkshake as a sweet treat for kids.
So, the team started interviewing these morning customers. They asked a simple question. "What job were you trying to get done when you hired that milkshake this morning?"
The answers revealed a powerful insight. The customers had a long, boring commute to work. They wanted something to make the drive more interesting.
The milkshake was perfect for the job. It was thick and took a long time to drink through a thin straw. This kept them occupied for most of their commute.
It was also clean. They could drink it with one hand while driving, and it rarely spilled. A banana was gone too quickly, and donuts left their fingers sticky.
No one would list a milkshake as a breakfast food. Yet, for these people, it was the best breakfast option for the job they needed to do. The company was competing with bananas and bagels, not with other milkshakes from competitors.
This milkshake story is the most famous example of a framework called "Jobs to be Done" or JTBD. The theory is simple but profound. Customers do not buy products; they "hire" them to do a job.
This simple switch in perspective changes everything. It moves you from thinking about your product's features to thinking about your customer's goals. This opens up infinite possibilities for innovation.
Think about it from your perspective as an SAP customer dealing with financials. You do not buy new accounting software just for its features. You "hire" it for a job.
What is that job? Maybe the job is "help me close the books at quarter-end without working all weekend." Or maybe it is "give me a report so clear that the CEO will finally stop questioning my numbers."
These are the real human motivations. No one gets excited about a software update. But they do get excited about getting their weekend back. According to a Harvard Business School professor, focusing on the job is a fantastic way to spark innovation.
Once you understand the specific job, you can improve your product, service, and marketing around it. You stop competing on features and start competing on how well you get that job done. This is where you find your market advantage and provide insight that your competitors miss.
So how do you find the "job" your customers are trying to do? It is not as simple as sending out a survey. You have to get out of the office and observe.
As my own experience with clients shows, there is often a big gap between what people say they do and what they actually do. Finding the truth requires some detective work. Here are some methods that work.
The best insights do not come from a spreadsheet. They come from watching your customers in their natural environment. This is exactly what Christensen's team did with the milkshakes.
This method is called ethnographic research. It just means studying people in their own setting. You want to see the context in which they are making decisions.
For a physical product, this could mean watching people shop in a store. For software, it could mean watching a user try to complete a task on your platform. You will be amazed at what you learn when you just observe quietly.
After observing, you need to talk to people. But your interview style has to change. You are not asking them what they want in a product.
Instead, you ask them about their situation. Ask them to tell you the story of when they last used your product. What was happening right before they decided to use it?
Go deep into their struggles and motivations. This can feel more like therapy than marketing research. But it is how you uncover the real story and get to the core insight you need.
This kind of research is not a new concept. Anthropologists and sociologists have been doing this for a long time. There are established methods you can borrow that offer fresh insights.
One powerful tool is a customer journey map. This is a visual representation of every interaction a customer has with your company. It helps you see the process through their eyes.
Creating one forces you to identify all the touchpoints. More importantly, it helps you spot the pain points. These are the moments of struggle where your customer is looking to "hire" a better solution.
| Research Method | Primary Goal | Best For Understanding |
|---|---|---|
| Ethnographic Research | Observe behavior in a natural context. | What people actually do vs. what they say they do. |
| JTBD Interviews | Uncover the underlying motivation for a purchase. | The "why" behind a customer's decision. |
| Customer Journey Mapping | Visualize the end-to-end customer experience. | Pain points and opportunities for improvement across touchpoints. |
| Service Desk Ticket Analysis | Identify recurring problems and frustrations. | Where the product or service fails to meet expectations. |
If you can, you should record your interviews. Make sure you get permission first. Video is even better than just audio.
Why? Because so much of communication is nonverbal. You can analyze their tone of voice, their facial expressions, and their hesitations later.
A good note taker is also essential. They can capture quotes and observations while you focus on the conversation. After a few interviews, you can analyze these recordings and notes to find common themes and patterns.
This process must respect the user's information. A clear privacy policy is mandatory. Make sure participants understand how their data will be used and that all rights reserved by your company will be handled ethically.
Collecting data is only half the battle. The next step is to synthesize it to find the core idea, or the insight noun, that ties everything together. This is where you transform scattered observations into a coherent story.
One effective method is affinity mapping. You can take your notes, quotes, and observations and write them on individual sticky notes. Then, group the notes that feel related until clear themes emerge.
This process helps your team move beyond individual stories to see the larger patterns. The goal is to articulate the customer's problem so clearly that the solution becomes obvious. It helps you to offer fresh ideas that are grounded in real-world evidence.
This might all sound very abstract. But this kind of deep insight has a direct impact on your financials. Let's go back to our examples.
The milkshake company could have made their shake even thicker. They could have added tiny chunks of fruit to make the commute less boring. These changes would help the milkshake do its "job" better, leading to more sales.
Now think about your financial software. Let's say your insight research reveals the "job" is about reducing errors in final reports. These errors cause stress and long nights for the accounting team.
What could you do? Maybe you develop a new feature that automatically flags common types of mistakes. Or you could redesign a confusing part of the user interface. Better yet, you could improve your customer service to proactively help users during peak reporting periods.
These are not huge, expensive projects. But they perfectly solve a painful problem for your customer. This builds incredible loyalty and word-of-mouth marketing.
When you solve the right problem, customers are much less sensitive to price. They will stick with you, and they will tell their friends. This reduces churn and customer acquisition costs, directly improving your company's financial health.
The following list clearly shows the difference.
Consider how this applies in other industries, such as real estate. A real estate agent who offers insight into a neighborhood's commute, not just house features, is solving a deeper job for a buyer moving from a city like San Francisco. This creates far more value than a simple property tour.
Getting real customer insight is about shifting your focus. You have to move away from just looking at what people do. You need to put in the work to understand why they do it.
This means observing your customers, talking to them about their struggles, and looking for the "job" they are trying to get done. This is not always an easy process. But the great insight you get is what separates good companies from great ones.
When you achieve that sudden understanding of your customer's world, you can create solutions that they will happily pay for. That lightbulb moment does not just illuminate a new path; it powers the business that lasts.
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