Is your company a great innovator? According to business development expert Dan Adams, author of New Product Blueprinting: The Handbook for B2B Organic Growth, the true litmus test is customer engagement. “Too many companies fail to factor the customer into their innovation efforts,” he says. “Oh, they may half-heartedly solicit customer input, but they don’t really listen to it. They don’t let customers drive the process. And that’s too bad, because if they don’t engage customers directly, aggressively, and objectively, they’re going to get sluggish results.”

Adams contends that customers have the insight your business needs to be successful. “A successful company innovates for its customers, not itself,” he notes. “That’s because nobody inside your company can pay for innovation — only your customers can do that. So the more closely you engage those who pay, the more you learn what they’ll pay for.” As part of your customer relationship-building efforts, Adams offers these powerful tips to engage customers during product development:

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• Select a smart market focus. Don’t try to please all customers at the same time. Select an attractive market segment (good growth, size, competitive landscape, etc.) for in-depth interviewing.

• Create an interview team. Use a two to three-person interview team to conduct interviews with six to 10 customers in this segment. Send at least one technical and one marketing person. The technical person is key to attracting the right customer attendees.

• Ask for the interview. When you call to set up your customer interview, make it clear that you would like their input before you begin product development, and that your interview team is coming to listen, not sell.

• Take a qualitative approach. Begin with a round of qualitative interviews, followed later by quantitative interviews and/or surveys. In the qualitative “discovery” interviews, focus on uncovering all the possible outcomes the customer wants.

• Take advantage of digital projection. During the interview, display your notes on a projection screen. This lets the customer correct mistakes on a real-time basis, and dramatically increases their level of engagement.

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