Put the Shotgun Away

I’m not talking about advice to the proverbial father of the soon-to-be bride, rather the methodology with which we promote our products and services today. We are in the era of mass customization, not mass marketing.

I have always been amazed by the drive-thru window concept in fast food.  I can place my order and within 60 seconds have a hot sandwich packaged and presented to me. Recently, we began using a similar piece of technology in production where customers’ orders are posted on a screen in order of departure time. Our teams have to make literally hundreds of specialty packs each day and they need to do it in an efficient manner with great attention to detail on exact product and packaging specifications.

The key is listening to what your customer needs and then offering a solution that addresses their concerns, not your production capabilities. Typically you get one chance to hit the target with an exact solution custom designed for each customer. The old approach of pushing the mass produced product onto each customer is gone.

It is time to sight in the rifle.