how to understand the client and negotiate with the customer

Introduction

With the departure of Western companies from the Russian market in 2022, many businesses faced a situation in which the usual work patterns stopped working. This created the preconditions for the growth of domestic solutions, but many companies were not ready for such radical changes. Suppliers of services and goods were forced to act in conditions of uncertainty, offering what was at hand.

Western players, such as Adobe, Atlassian, IBM and others, left the Russian Federation, leaving a vacuum that disrupted business processes. Domestic companies faced questions that no one in the world had answers to. Suddenly, for some domestic businesses, it turned out that the established business processes turned out to be fragilepositioning is not based on competitive comparison, marketing strategies have been reduced to posts on social networks – and that's it it does not bring the expected result.

The whole heap of problems that have arisen in the relations between “product supplier” and “product consumer” cannot be solved with one toolsince the issue is complex and comprehensive. In this article, I will focus on only one of the hypothesis testing tools – on interview in castedeva methodology.

Custdev (kastev) is a hypothesis testing method, a tool that shows high efficiency in identifying requests/needs of the target audience and answers important questions about the product business model, has a strong influence on high-quality product development.

Personal experience: difficulties and solutions

There are many articles written about interviews, the structure and methods are also described (at the end of the article, a possible structure for performing work is given). I myself have conducted 100+ castev interviews and constantly encountered difficulties, so I decided to share my own experience in this article.

Castev, like the market, does not “hang in the air,” but is tied to real business processes, stages of the life cycle of products and enterprises, management structure, and business size.

Note: in Russia, the concepts of “Customer Development Methodology” and “Custdev” have merged into one entity. Don't panic! Country specifics, market demands, time – all this affects our perception. The main thing is that all parties speak and understand in the same terms.

In real life, research often begins when the product is already at the pilot stage or is not selling in the planned volumes, and all other means of achieving results have been usedAt such moments, changing the product concept is a labor-intensive, reputation-intensive and risky undertaking.

Many companies have difficulty analyzing the consequences of using or not using castev, because To carry out the assessment, the will of the shareholder, the experience of the team and the budget are requiredMy experience shows: lack of resources at the product development stage leaves the product only as presentationsThis approach is associated with the low level of maturity of the company's businesses and signals an imminent restructuring of the business.

But let's consider a more ideal option – casting as an organic part of creating an MVP (minimum viable product).

I always try to ask potential consumers questions about their pains, difficulties. That is, to do what all researchers, marketers, analysts, researchers (for the purposes of this article, all the specified professions are mentioned as synonyms) write, tell and advise to do.

Such stories usually omit the fact that the consumer, the budget holder, the person making the decision to purchase the product, the person interested in the product/solution, the person ordering custom development are different people with their own unique tasks and interests.

“Pain” of the user may consist, for example, in the inconvenience of using the product, complex communications with related departments along the chain of cooperation, the performance of uncharacteristic functions, significant time costs for the performance of identical standard functions, misunderstanding of the specifics, etc. But the user is expected to produce specific results of activity and he (almost always) has adapted to rolling the square into the round. At first glance, it seems that the user does not have any pain as such. But upon closer examination, it becomes obvious: “pains” exist – they are just difficult to dig up.

Decision maker (DM) on purchasing a product faces many pressing challenges: increasing revenue, controlling costs, fulfilling plans. In a crisis, when Autodesk shuts down cloud services for construction companies, DM solves burning “pains”, for example, by organizing “cold rooms for hot smoking”. Therefore, the real “pains” of the DM lie in their own plane, different from the “pains” of the user.

Budget holder often positions itself as detached from production tasks, requiring multiple approvals and adherence to the budgeting cycle. Its main “pain” is the agreed correct spending of funds.

At the sales manager's “Pain” may be the lack of relevant presentation materials on the product or a poor description of how to handle objections.

The options considered are just a few examples, but there are many types of pain and people. Therefore, in a castev it is important to consider many effects for different groups of people (persons, functions) and analyze the situation comprehensively. This is always more than what was initially included in the castev specification and discussed with the interested parties (the castev customers).

I strive to include non-obvious problematic hypotheses in the caste, because the final result directly affects the financial result of the project. However, at the initial stage of formulating hypotheses, disagreements with the customer often arise. It is beneficial for the customer to minimize the risks of their business decisions (this is true even for some shareholders) and hypotheses can be formulated “for show”. I recommend, without exacerbating the conflict with the customer, seek a compromise — formulate some hypotheses as less risky, and leave some as more problematic.

Colleagues, how do you approach forming a list of hypotheses? How do you distinguish useful hypotheses from less significant ones?

Sometimes we hear this call from coaches: «Твой клиент за дверью, выйди на улицу и спроси его, что он хочет». In my opinion, this is an example of a bad search for both respondents and insights. I have approached my business friends with my ideas several times. Their views on my ideas were unambiguous: «Не летают»Years later I saw something similar to my thoughts being implemented by third-party developers.

Search for respondents Personally, it causes me the most difficulties. They say that there are cases when the customer provides respondents for interviewing or sets a budget for their search. In my practice, the number of respondents provided by the customer was always less than agreed upon, and the budgets for this were quickly optimized to zero. The customer sometimes perceives castev as a task that has already been delegated, sent to outsourcing. I try to expand my own contact base as much as possible, integrating people from it for surveys.. It's tedious, difficult and slow.

To find respondents, an HR specialist is sometimes included in the working group for casting. He organizes “fake” interviews, during which respondents share sensitive information. I believe that such methods are unethical and can lead to consequences that we cannot predict. So let's make a choice in favor of ethical business!

Colleagues, please share some effective life hacks: how do you find respondents?

And, of course, the castev methodology is applicable not only to IT products.

By asking the right, meaningful questions (I'll give you some good ones at the end of this article for product/business analysis), the interviewer must have the relevant knowledge and experience to capture the true issue, understand the significance, and steer the conversation in the right direction. Hear your respondents!

And yes, there are moments of insight – don't underestimate their importance. They are capable of completely turning the idea of ​​a product and a market upside down.

I do not plan to dwell on interview techniques within the framework of this article, since this is a separate work and a huge volume for discussion.

From time to time I come across the situation where the customer of the custom developer does not agree with the conclusions received.

Some castev performers adjust the results to the expectations and worldview of the one who pays (even if it is an internal customer).

In such circumstances, if you anticipate a possible conflict, create two versions of the report – one, the expected one, and another, with an expanded result. In practice, there have been cases when a shareholder was approached with several versions of the report and, depending on the mood, the right one was demonstrated.

How are things going for you? Do you discuss the wording with the customer in advance? How do you handle objections?

Conclusion

If you, as a customer of castev, have encountered a negative experience, do not rush to refuse to use this tool. Analyze the reasons!

The results of the castev are not a beautiful presentation and a bright report, but a synthetic structure that comprehensively influences the complex mechanism of business functions. The readiness to accept these results and start acting is what distinguishes the market leaders!