by Ian Duncan
This series is about deploying Brand to drive transformation and growth. That starts with changing mindset as your foundation.
In my last article, we explored Purpose as the first lever for changing organizational mindset. Now we turn to the second: Customer.
In a recent Conference Board survey, CEOs ranked customers as their #1 priority. Yet I’ve sat in countless transformation meetings where “customer” wasn’t mentioned once until someone brave spoke up at the end. Everyone nodded. Then went back to business as usual.
Why? Because the prevailing mindset is product-centric. It’s just more convenient to make customers fit around how we operate, rather than the other way around.
The mindset that’s costing you money
Here’s what I see in product-led organizations:
- Customer = someone we sell to
- Growth = cross-selling, up-selling, repeat transactions
- Success = our success
This thinking creates an ever-lengthening tail of small, unprofitable B2B customers that suck up resources. Meanwhile, your best customers feel taken for granted and start looking elsewhere.
Contrast this with customer-led organizations:
- Customer = someone we value
- Growth = adjacent needs, deeper relationships
- Success = your success is our success
They generate superior results from fewer, deeper relationships. They know who their most valuable customers are and cultivate more of them.
The culture connection
I once mapped an organization’s employee engagement data against client brand perceptions. The attributes employees wanted most had the strongest correlation with brand strength.
Both groups wanted the same thing: to feel valued and listened to
A US airline worker captured this perfectly during staff shortages: “They’re not thinking of us as humans… We’re just robots that are here to get the job done… there is no respect for the workers anymore.”
That internal experience becomes your customer experience. You can’t build a strong brand on top of a crappy culture. You’re fooling no-one.
Making it practical: The ball bearing example
One CEO I worked with transformed “frictionless business” from a tagline into a customer experience mapped to the growth funnel:
The key? They took their own medicine. The customer experience proved the concept they were selling.
Three non-negotiables
- If you value your customers, make sure your people feel valued too. The airline example shows what happens when you don’t.
- Shift from products to relationships as your economic building blocks. Stop the transactional product-push. Start cultivating deeper partnerships.
- Make your brand idea live in the customer experience. Don’t just claim it – demonstrate it at every touchpoint that matters for growth.
Final thought: Consider creating a “Head of Customer” role in your C-suite. If the customer is truly priority #1, they need a permanent seat at the table.
Follow the Series
The subject of this series of short articles is how CEO’s can use their corporate brand as an asset in helping them succeed in transforming and growing their organization. Use of brand in this context is a missed opportunity, and one which has never been more relevant. The series covers why CEOs need help today, what they need help with, how brand fits in, how to deploy brand to do its job, and how to get started on the journey.
What brands can do for CEOs–Putting your brand to work
The CEO-s Change Equation for Brand Growth Momentum: P=MV
Purpose — The CEO’S First Lever of Momentum
Addressing the Mindset Challenge, through Customer (this article)