Insightly_Ep13
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Alyssa McGinn: [00:00:00] Hello, everyone. Welcome back to the Insightly podcast. We are glad you're back with us. I think we're on episode 13, 14.

Jordan Walker: Something like that. I've lost count.

Alyssa McGinn: I have too. But we're glad that you're with us. If you're new with us, we talk about all things data related to your internal business data, how you can use it to innovate, to drive strategic decisions.

And we're kind of just looking at data from every angle. ~And so today we're going to continue in a.~

~Kind of a sporadic series that we've had about how you can use data to innovate in different ways in your company. ~Today is going to be specifically about product offering, which I think is exciting and especially in [00:01:00] today's day and age when people are trying to get creative with how they offer their products and their services.

And how can we use the data that you're collecting on your customers and your sales transaction data to drive further innovation? And we're going to try to talk about five different ways that we can, I say that because

Jordan Walker: We'll go on a

Alyssa McGinn: time. Yeah,

Jordan Walker: to

Alyssa McGinn: we'll try to make it through five.

Jordan Walker: We've coached ourselves before this episode, so hopefully we hold ourselves accountable.

Alyssa McGinn: And I will try to keep us moving through them. But we're going to talk about five ways that utilizing your business data can drive innovation in your products. And I'm just. I'm excited about this because

Jordan Walker: I love this topic.

Alyssa McGinn: like when we talked about innovating and profitability and it's ~like, yeah, that's ~cool and

Jordan Walker: I mean that's standard. You should want to do that.

Alyssa McGinn: and when you can be more profitable or make a service line or product more profitable, that's great. But this is like kind of the heart of innovation.

Jordan Walker: Well, and this, exactly, because like when you think about like major [00:02:00] companies, like on this topic, I always think of Amazon, ~you know, like, like them or not, right? But ~to go from being an online bookstore to now being like the go to shopping, department store, the grocery store, like to be able to ~like ~order and get things ~like ~within an hour.

Amazon is a perfect example of innovating within product offering based off of ~like ~what they're learning about their customers. And I'm sure we'll dig into that a little bit more as an example. But like when you're thinking about how do you grow your business, ~it's, ~you don't always have to go look for different revenue streams.

~Like ~you can innovate with the things that you have based on what your customers need more from you.

Alyssa McGinn: Yeah, and I thinks that's true with every realm of innovation, because I think a lot of times with the things that you have, based on what your customers need more from you.

And I think data can be overlooked because there's some [00:03:00] new shiny object out there, or there's some third party data that you can buy, ~and you can analyze and look at, ~and I think sometimes that's to the detriment of the people you're trying to reach and the data you already have.

Jordan Walker: It's like the difference between are you just trying to keep up with the Joneses and do what you see your competitors doing? That's not necessarily innovation. We also see a lot of decisions within businesses being made based on like gut reactions or assumptions or, hey I saw this thing, I think it's cool, like we should do it too.

~Those kind of ideas are always great, but. ~Then look inward into the data to see like, okay, is it a viable solution? And if so, how do you appropriately do it so that your risk management, your risk is lesser

Alyssa McGinn: And I think that you can bite off more than you can chew if you start to do it that way I think AI is a great example of that. It's like, companies that have no data foundation, no, ~you know, ~infrastructure or governance or anything in place, they're like, [00:04:00] oh, we should utilize AI. How can we, you know, make that something that we can, ~you know, ~incorporate?

And I'm like,

Jordan Walker: Like, we don't even have a foundation yet. ~Like, ~good idea. There's not a foundation.

Let's start there. We've got to put, pour some concrete first.

Alyssa McGinn: Where's, where's your data stored? ~Like, oh, I don't know. Like, I think it's in, you know, it's like, and there's no knocking that because AI can be a very valuable asset to build in. But ~like, I think this is kind of to that point is like, let's start with the data you already have.

And, you know, we're strumming a two string guitar when we talk about this, because it's like, we always go back to, well, what is the data you already have telling you? And I think it's maybe kind of feels boring in some ways, but it's really not. Once you get into. The insights and the aha moment that it can give you, but I think it's like, on the outset, it's kind of,

Jordan Walker: It seems

Alyssa McGinn: boring.

Yeah, it can seem boring, or like, oh, it's just easier to buy this data set from this other third party. Okay, but the first way that you can utilize business data to enhance your products or [00:05:00] services is selling products better.

Jordan Walker: Yes, ~I, ~this is ~what, ~where I live and breathe a lot of times with companies because ~it's ~You always want to be a lot more profitable in how you're going about selling, which means that you want to spend time on the customers that have the greatest return or are most valuable to your company or most valuable to the opportunities that you want to go

Alyssa McGinn: Um, But

Jordan Walker: But yeah, like this is ~like ~the starting point of being able ~to, ~to innovate your ~prop ~product offering is based on how you go and sell it.

it

Alyssa McGinn: Yeah. And I think customer segmentation and like targeting is, is your jam. Right. And I think that is also, again, very foundational.

Like how do we just sell what we're selling, but do it better in a more customized, personalized,

targeted way.

Jordan Walker: is the word there too. Like, that is the point when you have a good relationship with a brand or a company that you're purchasing things from, you kind of, especially in like a [00:06:00] B2B realm. You know that you might be one of a hundred or a thousand customers, but when you go and talk to your sales rep or, you know, business development person, you want to make sure that they understand who you are.

And the only way that sales teams can do that effectively is by truly understanding who their customers are. And so, yeah, I spend a lot of time with companies, you know, just talking about how it's not about, like, let's go after every single customer. What are the opportunities that we're trying to seek?

What are the innovations or the directions that we want to test and validate? Who are the personas? Not the audience, like, target markets are huge. Personas and little segments are where we need to, like, focus. And what can we learn about their attributes to help us sell more effectively, speak to them the way that they want to be spoken to, Deliver, you know, tactics at the right time in the right place.

More importantly, how do we spend our budget doing that effectively?

Alyssa McGinn: ~that effectively? Yeah. ~So let's talk about [00:07:00] some of the that we could uncover about these customers when trying to figure out how to sell to them better. Because I feel like that's something that like, Oh, that's great. You know, like we want to understand who our clients are, but let's talk about like what are some of those specifics that we're going to look for when trying to sell to them better?

Jordan Walker: to sell from there?

Yeah, so what I typically, especially if you have a CRM system, I know we've talked about this in, I think, every episode at this point. But if you have a good CRM system or you have a good collection space for your customer data, Even if it is a spreadsheet, you can go back and listen to our short episode about two spreadsheet or

or not.

but what I typically look for first is one sales transaction history to help us figure out, okay, are you, or aren't you the right person for this product or service?

When you get in there, you have your essential, you know, contact information. What company do they work [00:08:00] for? What is their job title?

If your team has done a good job of inputting sales notes and like conversations, then maybe you have some, you know, customer service conversations logged in there to where you can start kind of diving in and seeing what questions they frequently ask.

But as far as like the sales pipeline goes, some of the attributes that I also recommend looking at is look at how they've traveled through your sales pipeline within different deals.

Alyssa McGinn: deals.

Jordan Walker: When did they become a prospect? How did they become a prospect? Did you seek them out? Did they fill out some sort of thing?

What was their referral? How long did it take them to go from prospect to customer? What were those steps? What

Alyssa McGinn: how long did they spend in each stage.

Jordan Walker: Exactly, because that starts to give you a way to plan. If you can see, okay, on average we've got 50 really good customer profiles that we could totally beta test this new product on.

Alyssa McGinn: [00:09:00] product

Jordan Walker: They typically became a prospect because of a other customer referral. Good insight, because that means that we're gonna have to activate our customers to go find more like them, right? They spent 60 days on average as a prospect. Cool, you know that you're going to have a two month time frame of advertising and sales tactics before you kick it over from a new prospect direction.

But then you can also use that to say, okay, if they're already a customer and it took them that long to go from point A to point B, could we set a goal and try to achieve that in half the time with people who already know us?

Alyssa McGinn: know us? And I think it'd be really interesting, like this is just an example, but like let's say, actually one of our clients, they noticed that the stage from proposal to like signed was really long.

And so it's like they quickly went through the stages of interest and proposal, this is purely the sales cycle. And then they were waiting in this proposal phase for like a really long time before they would sign or say no. And, [00:10:00] you know, I think that, and then even like, when are they actually, when are we kicking off the work after that?

And I think ~it, you know, ~it can bring to light a lot of friction that happens in that specific part of the process. ~And I think that's something that's like, some of it's just like on your side, like ~how do we remove friction? How do we make this easier? And how do we, ~you know, ~make sure that, ~you know, ~one, they're getting the right products or services, but two, that our processes are really.

streamlined and simple ~and ~it can be as easy as hey, we need to digitize this proposal process or we need to, ~you know, ~book the next meeting to review the proposal on the call ~with the You know when we give the proposal, there's ~there's small things like that that ~I think you know ~can be overlooked as innovation

Jordan Walker: hundred percent. And I think that's such a good point to make because at the end of the day, it's all about creating a great customer experience. If you've got a product or a service that you know these customers need, you know that they have been asking for it. They're already working with you in this context that we're speaking in.

Alyssa McGinn: That

Jordan Walker: That is an easier sale. To get them over the finish line, but if we make it difficult on them, if [00:11:00] we're trying to force a process that's not working, ~that, ~that causes a lot of resistance

resistance and it also makes it more difficult for somebody to refer others to you because they ~How many times have you even had this conversation with others?~

I know I've said it where it's like, I love that company I really love their product, but man, they are so difficult to work

with.

Alyssa McGinn: Yeah. And that can trump, that can

Jordan Walker: yeah, like, and especially if you're like, I don't have time to go

Alyssa McGinn: have time

Jordan Walker: ~you know, these kinks, you're going to go find someone that maybe is easier to work with, even if their product is lesser than.~

So I think the customer experience factor is so important to highlight at that is innovation. And it's not always about like creating a new product or a new thing. It's more about optimizing your own house.

Alyssa McGinn: yeah, and I don't know how many times I've, I've been giddy because I'm like, that was so easy. I love that because it was so easy to work

Jordan Walker: them. Those challenges are great to uncover. Yeah. I mean, because you have ~co ~total control over fixing it. ~Really. Yeah.~

Alyssa McGinn: And that's, I will say on the data side, that's not something that you really even have to try. Track because it's like you have they entered this stage at this date.

So as long as you have dates associated with activities which is like very I [00:12:00] mean, I feel like baseline for the CRM like that's not something that

Jordan Walker: Have your email connected to the CRM, have your customer service tool connected to the CRM if you have it, log sales transactions to the customer

Alyssa McGinn: And once it's connected you don't have to do a lot of that

Jordan Walker: yeah.

Alyssa McGinn: you'll just be like Oh, like I didn't realize that they were in this stage for 45 days so, okay, we need to keep moving.

Jordan Walker: Hold ourselves accountable.

Alyssa McGinn: So, we talked about selling products better. That's very, ~you know, ~basic, but also can be very innovative.

Second is identifying new product offerings. ~So, you know, ~I think that this can happen without going through number one, but I think it can be very revealing when you're going through how do we sell the products and services we already have. Better than it's like you start to uncover new products, services, combinations, if you will.

Jordan Walker: upsells, yeah.

Alyssa McGinn: And so this is more like how do [00:13:00] we use what we have to identify new products? And I think that this speaks like volumes to the gut. Like I think people bring new products and services to market. Based on gut, more than probably any of these five things. Any experiences with that or thoughts?

Jordan Walker: ~Well, I mean, I think ~when you're working with really passionate leadership teams that are highly visionary, ~this is, ~that's where I see that a lot, ~because ~especially if they've got a team where their leaders ~are ~really do have autonomy to run the company. If you've got ~like ~visionary executives that are already thinking like three, five, 10 years down the line, Sometimes you can ~kind of ~get in that, oh I have this gut feeling that we should go after this and I want to start working on it now.

As you were kind of describing this though I was remembering one of the first times you and I sat down And you were showing me the Revenue Management Dashboard that [00:14:00] InfoFluency has created. And we were just, you were just showing it to me and then we all of a sudden just started, Oh, here's all these things you could do with this.

And it makes me think of when we were looking at the product categories by customer segments and industries. And how we were noticing that there was a combination where there were, the segment of customer profiles that we were looking at typically started with like product B, I don't remember exactly, but let's just say they started, they purchased initially into product B.

And then within a certain time frame, they would easily be sold product D. And that insight was really powerful because it's like, okay, well, why product B, number one? What was it about product B and not A or C, right? And then why D? Why was that the complementary product that they transitioned to later?

How long of a transition was that? And I [00:15:00] think in that conversation ~we started, ~we realized that there was a gap that could be sealed within the sales process of, okay, well, how can you maybe ask better questions on the front end? Let's go ahead and sell both of these together. Like let's make a new packaged offering and see if that works to get the sale in sooner.

And then we can find ways to increase, you know, value as we go along.

Alyssa McGinn: ~along. ~will say too that I feel like a lot of times, what happens is that you notice like a lag in your sales process. Or you notice that something, like there's a common thread of why someone's not buying with you. And a lot of times that can be how you identify new products.

Because it's not that they eventually want product B and D, but they need product X that you don't sell first.

I've

And I've seen people, like, companies that we've worked with that end up acquiring a company that does product X as a way to, so the innovation originally started with their own [00:16:00] data saying, Okay, well all these people are saying that they need to go do product X first and they'll come back to us when they're ready for product B.

You know, we should just sell product X because that perfectly goes into product B.

this language, all these

Jordan Walker: have a quiz later.

Alyssa McGinn: So ~like, let's, ~let's start looking at how can we quickly start selling product X. And a lot of times, ~like ~that isn't from the ground up building product X.

Jordan Walker: yeah, it's going out and finding who's already doing it well that aligns well with your company.

Alyssa McGinn: I think they started partnering with them where they would sell it with a commission and say, okay, great. You know, we have, A partner that does product X and in that way they can stay in that sales process and they don't just say like, Okay, we'll come back to us when you sell product X because at that point You've lost that customer like honestly once once you just say, you know, good luck finding product X Let us know when you're ready for our product You then you know aren't the customer experience isn't great and They're no longer really in your pipeline And so, you know, how can you [00:17:00] partner with and or buy if you're in a position to acquire a company that does something add on or You know, additional to your

Jordan Walker: I think in order for that to work and identify what is the product, that means that as a company, as a part of like your sales and marketing processes, we need to have a good feedback loop.

~So, okay, maybe you're not a product or service that really needs like a customer service team necessarily, like your sales team really is the customer service team. ~What ways are you implementing a feedback loop so that your teams are learning more about the other product stack that a company might have that is relatable to what you do?

But then also, how are you implementing, you know, just really good questions and surveys or one on one conversations to learn about like, so what else are you looking for? Where is your business going? What do you need in order to get there? And That is a very simple thing to incorporate that I see get left behind quite a bit when we're, and it doesn't make sense when we're constantly in this stage of like, well, how do we do this more?

How do we learn about them? Well, we go and talk to our customers. We ask [00:18:00] them.

Alyssa McGinn: I'll give the example from our business, ~because I think that like, ~even though we sell analytics services, we were finding that people were having a hard time getting data from point A to point B in an automated fashion, and so data wasn't analytics ready, and we're not really in the business process automation world, ~and so ~we found a partner~ shout out if they're listening to this~ that does, ~you know, ~high level data conversion in business process automation, and, you know, I think that would be something that I have on my mind, like, okay, well, you know, Now it's coming up in like every, we're using them in so many cases because now I can say, Oh, well, we can automate that conversion process for you.

Then the data is analytics ready, and we're ready to start

Jordan Walker: we're ready to start working.

And, you know, we can bring in another company and bring

Alyssa McGinn: to bring in another company and bring them business consistently, and that's really cool.

So, I think it's just like a win, win, [00:19:00] win.

Jordan Walker: This is the second time we've mentioned partnerships, and I think it's important to note that identifying these sorts of partnerships is innovation as well. Like that is innovating your product line is by finding great, ~you know, ~companies to align yourself with. If you're not in a position to acquire, it doesn't make sense for your business.

Alyssa McGinn: Because that's a big part of

Jordan Walker: Oh, yeah, that's a,

Alyssa McGinn: to just say, oh, I'm going to just go buy this. So I think that's why I said partnership can be a good first step. Okay. So we've talked about selling products better.

We talked about identifying new product offerings. Okay. Third is bundling products for maximum

value.

value So we kind of started talking about that a little bit. But I want to illustrate this in a use case because I think it'll just make more because I think people traditionally think like, oh, well just like.

Put

your services together into

Jordan Walker: into a blockchain.

Alyssa McGinn: ~it's really, there's a lot more to it than that. So ~one of our clients, ~they ~had a variety of products, and they sold into multiple So what they started doing was looking at, ~what you said ~their customer [00:20:00] base by product type, and then ~sub to that was ~by seasonality.

So what they did was they started bundling together ~you know, ~the products that ~these, it's like, let's say, ~Oil and Gas was buying, like, these three or four products. They didn't buy any of the rest of their products. ~Like, ~they only needed these three or four. And they were buying them together, and they were buying them on a quarterly cadence.

So then what they did, which I think this is the kind of innovation piece, is that they restructured their sales team. So the sales team then was, ~like, ~assigned product bundles, and ~then You know, in tandem, was assigned ~industries.

Jordan Walker: so then they became experts in both the product and the industry.

Alyssa McGinn: ~so they didn't, they were like, they had the sales cycle down. ~They knew they would be re upped to buy quarterly.

They knew, ~you know, ~the ins and outs of everything to know about these specific products. They knew the industry. And so before, all their salespeople were selling to everyone. Anyone who called or their accounts. And then they just moved all the accounts and then, ~you know, ~had a specialist sales team and they had, I think they had like four or five [00:21:00] industries they sell into and like ~or ~30 products.

So it's kind of like a lot for one salesperson

Jordan Walker: Yeah.

Alyssa McGinn: So I was like, that's super innovative. And they've already seen their, I mean, it's kind of an account based

Jordan Walker: Mm-Hmm.

Alyssa McGinn: model and they've already seen their accounts.

Jordan Walker: Yeah, I bet because that also means you have a better customer experience because you know the acronyms that they use, you know the terminology that they use, you're able to learn more about their company to then tell them why this, ~you know, ~product combination makes the most sense for them.

That's awesome.

Alyssa McGinn: those are like physical products. So I think if you're thinking, if you're a service based business, going back to how do you sell better, it's looking at, it's not just guessing, like, oh, I bet a company wants,

automation before they want analytics.

~It's like, really looking at the data to tell you what bundles to make, and I think, I don't, I~

Jordan Walker: ~You can do, yeah, ~you can do the same thing in a service based scenario of, okay, well, maybe you've got, ~like, ~a few [00:22:00] different professional services.

What makes the most sense? What is going to help them? It's at the differences where you have ~like ~product They're going to activate that product. They're going to use that product, ~you know ~almost immediately or get it ~like ~implemented almost immediately whereas a service has ~Maybe ~onboarding and a longer timeline in some cases and not always ~like ~a physical tangible outcome.

So it's just difference in like conversation and questioning to figure out like how do you plan those resources for that company and that becomes part of like that product combination in a way of Okay, if you're here at this point in time You We need to get here. How do we go about this process together so that we get you to where you need to be?

It's much more based on what you have. Yeah.

Alyssa McGinn: service is much more linear. Right. It's, we're going to do discovery, then we're going to do implementation, and then we're going to do, ~you know, ~maintenance. And that's like, okay, over the 12 month [00:23:00] commitment, they've bought three different services from you, but you've kind of bundled them

Jordan Walker: It's like, in my world, ~it's, ~we would start out with, okay. Client has a need to grow a certain ~like ~customer base. And so we're talking about, it usually starts with ~like, ~we need to run a marketing campaign. How do we go about it? Can you help us with ~like ~paid advertising strategy, targeting all of that kind of stuff?

Well, yes, but first let's analyze your customers. ~Like ~let's do a target audience workshop. Let's define who this audience is, what are their attributes because that helps with targeting later. So there is a tangible outcome there. But then from there, ~it's ~we know the audience. Let's map out their journey.

Let's align what messages make the most sense. Let's take a look at what platforms you already have and how they're performing so then we can then get a plan that says Optimize these channels and go forth and these are the things that we need to pour more energy into That is not resonating currently.

So like that whole process is technically multiple [00:24:00] services, but it's tailored in a way that if they don't have these earlier foundation pieces, that is where we start. If they've got the foundation, we're discovery and right into planning mode, right? ~I don't need to walk you through the same thing, like I'm not duplicating work at that point.~

Alyssa McGinn: And I think the only difference there is are you building custom you know, bundles or when people say bundling, it's like maybe photography business where you bundle like a mini session and a Right. Whatever. These amount of photos, it's more like we're still bundling our

Jordan Walker: Yeah. it's tailored to what you need. Yeah, we're

Alyssa McGinn: Here, go on our website and choose from these

Jordan Walker: Yeah.

Alyssa McGinn: Okay, number four is mapping product to customer type, which we just talked about. I think there's a lot more even insights we could get into on when you start to understand the attributes of the customers and then what products they're buying.

That is like a huge unlock. Like, what industry are they in? What size of business are they?

What's the lead source? Like, where are they coming from? You know, how many employees do they have?

Jordan Walker: Who's the key decision [00:25:00] maker?

Alyssa McGinn: Yeah, where, where are they located? Is there any, ~like, ~geographical attribute? ~You know, yeah, ~what are they, and then linking it to what are they buying?

I mean, we could probably talk

Jordan Walker: Yeah, well, mapping product to customer type is foundational in customer journey mapping as well. ~So, like, when you understand the customer journey and you're basing it off of, like, your most profitable, you know, clients in that product category or whatever.~

Then, you're mapping out their journey, you're able to anticipate what their next move is next, so then you can continue the lifetime, or continue to increase value of the lifetime of that

Alyssa McGinn: customer. you're giving

Jordan Walker: yeah, yeah! But then once you have that, you can then start to look at, okay, if I want more customers like you, let's go back to the very beginning and now go and test that out.

Like you were just saying, if we know what the attributes are, what other companies within this industry, industry category exists that we have not talked to? Who do we already have as a contact that we just haven't engaged in a while?

It starts to unlock your Filling the pipeline strategy, but then also like carrying the pipeline forward and just increasing its [00:26:00] value over time.

Alyssa McGinn: I think we could do like a mini episode on that, but for the sake of time, number five is enhancing customer lifetime value. I mean, I think that is the ~under, I don't like this word, undergirding, but ~undergirding of all the rest of it. It's like, right, we all want client relationships that last over the span of years where we can grow that account, where we can serve them in different capacities, where we become. ~You know, ~a trusted advisor to them and they're with us

~a long time of giving.~

Not only are they, is it duration, but it's also increased monetary value. Just increased exchange of value,

Jordan Walker: right?

Yeah, ~the less that, like, ~the more loyal a customer becomes over time. increases their value with you because the less time you have to spend on trying to sell them the why, they already get the why. Now you're pouring your energy into all of the things that we've already talked about. Like, let's discover what you need to get you to the next stage of your business or, or it could even be let's, if you're not ready, like how can I activate you as a [00:27:00] brand advocate to refer us to other great people just like you?

~And~

Alyssa McGinn: And I just had this idea, but if you're in a place, you're listening to this and you have. Some really great core customers, but you're struggling to innovate or grow or know kind of what's the next step in terms of services or products. I mean, gather more data, like do a focus group, do 10 minute interviews with your, ~you know, ~best customers because ~they're, whether or not you intentionally built and enhance their lifetime value, ~they're committed to you, right?

And I think there's a, Whole lot of data that ~you ~probably ~maybe ~isn't in your CRM right now that you could utilize if you're just kind of looking for, okay, what is, ~what's ~the next step for me? And I feel stuck.

Jordan Walker: ~just kind of looking for, okay, what is, what's the next step for me, and I feel stuck.~

But that's what I try to tell marketers is that part of our campaigns that we run and the experience that we're offering to our customers should help us find some more of that data. So, and it doesn't have to be in a, will you take this survey and we'll enter your name into a drawing for a gift card to Starbucks or something.

Like, you don't have to do it in that [00:28:00] way. It could just be, Hey, do you have 15 minutes that I can steal from you? I just have a few questions. I'm curious to know your perspective on a few things. Like, can I share with you what we're thinking of doing? ~Like. ~I've been working with a company where we have been interviewing their customers about a particular event and just asking them What was your experience with it?

Why should other people, you know, participate? What, what do you think we could improve upon? What information would have been great for you to know before committing? ~Like, after committing blah blah blah and~

we went in with some assumptions, but we also have taken away a lot of like, wow That was a good idea of how we should market this because like customers were also freely giving us You know what?

I think you should do and some of those were great ideas and we're like just gonna go ahead and write that down

Alyssa McGinn: you Some of those and we're like, just gonna go ahead and write that down. Tag put on market research or, you know, data [00:29:00] analysis ~or but there's ~it really is ~like I'm gonna reiterate that ~like the heart of innovation is dialing into where you're trying to grow who are your best customers and how can you just?

Enhance that experience for them make it better and get more like them. ~Yeah, like ~it's as simple as that, right ~and it's You know, ~I totally get that there's companies out there who want to, ~you know, ~get into a new vertical or a new geography or something new, but I think for the majority of people, you haven't tapped the perfection of your customer experience, your sales cycle, ~your ~even just the attributes of your best customers.

Like, there's a lot to uncover there ~that is the baseline of innovation.~

Jordan Walker: Well, and if you have that foundation already and like you understand that when you do have those gut feelings of we should go into that vertical, because I mean, there are a lot of CEOs that wake up in the morning with brilliant ideas, you know.

If you already have the foundation though, it's easier to go after those gut reactions to test and validate then Because the thing that holds us back is like if we do want to explore it and like really be thoughtful about okay Well, what's the risk? How are we going to [00:30:00] measure this? Like what are the outcomes that we're going after?

~You know, ~you might be wanting to get this implemented within the next year But if you've got six months worth of ~like ~foundational building to even get the data that you need ~You ~You're probably going to move forward with your idea regardless and then wish that you had that data in the long run. So even if you're a company that isn't necessarily, ~you know, maybe you're not really ~thinking about product innovation right now.

Maybe you're trying to find ways just to like improve company operations or whatever. Use this opportunity ~though ~to go ahead and start gathering ~like ~those attributes and understanding ~like ~your customer journeys, your most valuable customers, ~like ~understand your product categories against, ~you know, ~customer types.

Just get those persona foundations down and just going through that exercise might actually bring up some good ideas that you haven't thought of

Alyssa McGinn: Yeah, we're seeing a lot of companies retroactively implementing a company wide business intelligence

Jordan Walker: [00:31:00] Mmm.

Alyssa McGinn: platform is not really the right word, but layer to their company because they're seeing how anyone in any position might have an idea, but they want to have quick access to

Jordan Walker: which is totally the Amazon mentality too. I mean, Amazon has, they allow every ~com, every, you know, ~employee to have the access to the data that they need so that if somebody's like, Hey. I've noticed that ~our, ~the people who shop on Amazon hate going to the grocery store.

We should look into acquiring Whole Foods and start selling Whole Foods through us as a grocery store. And then they do it

Alyssa McGinn: Then they do

Jordan Walker: because they have the customer data foundation. So they don't have to start wondering. They can actually go ahead and run projections to say, all right, that acquisition actually will be highly profitable for us.

Let's go after it.

Alyssa McGinn: And that's, yeah, like validation of innovative thoughts I think is not something that can just be like spun up overnight.

~Yeah. ~Like that takes [00:32:00] proactive planning and thinking, and it's actually some of our favorite projects to do because it's so exciting to bring all the data from the different corners of the business into something that is. Truly accessible and brings visibility to everyone. But I think ~that take ~that requires a very forward looking intention by the executive team with maybe a ROI that is not immediate.

~And that's hard to make a decision for okay. ~That is all the time we have for innovating product offerings. But if you have any specific questions related to, ~you know, ~a use case where. You don't really know where to go next or you want to just bounce some ideas off of us, please reach out.

We would love, we love nothing more if you can't tell

Jordan Walker: So

Alyssa McGinn: talk about specific cases and brainstorm. Hello at insightlypodcast. com is the best place to reach us and we would love to chat with you. We will promise we will respond if you send us an email or even maybe highlight you on our next episode.

But for now, that's it for this episode and we'll catch you on the next one.

Jordan Walker: the next one.

Sounds good, see ya. [00:33:00]