All is not well when it comes to Buyer-Seller Relationships! In an earlier posting I listed a number of disturbing disconnections between buyers and sellers.
They reveal a picture that cannot be making either party happy.
For this reason, it is worth trying to get at the source of the disconnection.
And, do something about it.
Why is there a growing disconnect? Why is there a growing disconnect between what businesses are delivering and what customers want? Most businesses have honed their business practices around the product-centered or transactional model that has dominated business for decades.
The central tenets of this model go something like this:

• The purpose of business is to make and distribute things (or services) that can be sold.
  
• To be sold, these things must offer the customer superior value in relation to competitor's offerings.
  
• The business should focus on maximizing the profits from sales.
  
• For both maximum control and efficiency, products and services should be standardized.
  

The model focuses on the product and control of the process, including sales.
The buyer-seller disconnect is happening because customers are hardly in the picture, other than as buyers.
This is the classic economic view.
In today's marketplace customers have choices and this puts them in a position of control.
Here is a set of tenets that are aligned with what today's customers' value.
And, if acted on will deliver sustainable profits to the company.

• The purpose of business is to make and distribute things (or services) that customers value and will purchase at a fair price.
  
• The business should shift their focus from "things" to relationships that are valued by customers.
  Relationships that help customers gain experiential value and adapt to a fast-changing world.
  
• Products and services have short lifecycles and therefore, the focus should be on building customer equity.
  
• Once established, Customers value trusting relationships for what they can do for them today and, for the potential to help them face an uncertain and complex future.
  
• As customer equity or relationship value grows, customers become less price focused, seek more guidance on big picture issues and protective of the relationship.
  

Clearly, customers don't want committed relationships for everything they buy.
When looking for utility or a means-to-an-end, they will seek the best trade-off between price and convenience.
Some business like Wal-Mart will be able to use efficiency and control practices to eke-out a profit.
However, most businesses will find sustainable profits and growth more achievable if they pursue the customer mindshare that underlies customer equity.
For more on "Customer Relationships in a Web 2.
0 World" I invite you to download our recent white paper on the topic.
(www.
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