Getting Started with TRIZ

TRIZ is the Russian acronym for Theory of Inventive Problem Solving TRIZ in its classical form was developed by the Soviet inventor and science fiction writer Genrich Altshuller and his associates. He started developing TRIZ in 1946 while working in the “Inventions Inspection” department of the Caspian Sea flotilla of the Soviet Navy. His job Read More …

The Customer Knowledge Map

This is not a Marketing Funnel We are in love with our mapping processes from Value Stream Mapping, Process Mapping and Customer Journey Mapping. My problem with most mapping processes is that we are making a prediction about how our customer is going to act. After we make this prediction, we determine the reactionary steps Read More …

The Focus Question

I have been practicing more and more lately with the use of the Knowledge Vee, a creation of Bob Gowin’s and later shared in a book with Joseph Novak. In creating a Knowledge Vee (see post, If We Build Collaborative Funnels, We get Collaborative Customers), you start out by asking a Focus Question. The Focus Read More …

Can you Develop an Internal Champion?

Educating our customers we often believe is the path for sales success. We rely on that old Henry Ford saying, “’If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses”, that puts us in the teacher position, a feeling of superiority and control. It leads us down that path of manipulation Read More …

The Helping side of SD-Logic

One of the reasons I like the thinking that accompanies Service Dominant Logic is where it places organizations in relationship to the customer. It removes the organization from being an expert at the outset and focuses us on both giving and receiving help instead of the context of help is required. That mindset is a Read More …

Sales will rescue the Influence Marketers

In the Sales and Marketing world, we are judged by few other things more than our ability to influence others. We not only have to influence customers, often we have to influence our organizations to respond to the needs of those darn customers. There are more books written about influencing than anything else in sales. Read More …