Radio Free Enterprise | Brain Food For Business Owners

In business, the customer is king. They are not always right and they are sometimes abrasive but they are always the arbiter of what products, services, and businesses succeed and which do not. Ignore that fact to your peril. Occasionally, an offering or company comes along that fills needs that customers didn't even know they had. Think iPhone, Facebook or Tesla. But, more often than not, companies are trying to generate more sales from existing products or are developing slightly different products that they hope will unseat their competitors'. Billions of dollars are poured into research and development only to have a product flop almost immediately. How could this have been avoided? By simply asking customers - in person - to share their thoughts and reactions early in the process. My guest this week, Sage Baker, specializes in what is called Qualitative Research. Through focus groups, in-depth individual conversations and a variety of other tools, Sage finds out what people really think about a given ide