Of all the causes of tuned out behavior, the most common we've observed is the logical (but incorrect) assumption that, because you're an expert in a market or industry, you therefore know more than your buyers about how your product can solve their problems. It's natural, for instance, for twenty-year auto industry veterans to assume they know more than 100 mothers about how to drive preschool-age children around town each day. Too often, these Detroit product development experts just design the radio (or keyless entry system, or cupholder layout) that they themselves would want to buy.
When was the last time you bought your company’s product?
Executives, product development people, and marketers all want to believe that they've got all the answers. The entrepreneur wants to go with her gut. The product manager wants to re-create a past success. The marketer wants to rely on expensive advertising to buy market share, or to gamble on a huge Wall Street Journal, Today Show, or Time Magazine media hit.
But these seat-of-your-pants approaches involve much more risk.
Going on intuition, buying your way in with expensive advertising, or begging your way in with the media coverage simply does not work as often or as well as being tuned in.
