Table of Contents
Preface: Outside In, Not Inside Out
1. THE BAD HABIT OF INSIDE-OUT THINKING
• It's unfortunately common
• Inside-out thinking keeps turning up
• Outside-in: An alternate habit worth having, but a challenge to keep
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Drucker taught outside in long ago
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Outside in: powerful answer to harmful problems
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Outside in to fight unclear strategies
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Outside in to fight inadequate communication
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Outside in to fight poor preparation for the future
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Benefits of the outside-in discipline
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Summary
•
Outside-in actions
2. THE OUTSIDE-IN DISCIPLINE
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A new discipline - for a new habit
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The many faces of inside out
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Needed: a new discipline and a new habit
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The essence of the outside-in discipline
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Keys to the outside-in discipline: CUSTOMERS, RIGOR and OPPORTUNITY
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Overview of this book
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Summary
•
Outside-in actions
3. CUSTOMERS ARE FRUSTRATING
• But the outside-in discipline is still useful and important
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Customers may see things "incorrectly"
• Customers may not pay proper attention
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Customers may be cautious or unappreciative
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Customers may not be able to articulate their needs
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The outside-in discipline is still useful and important
•
Focusing on rigorous thinking and on customers
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Summary
•
Outside-in actions
4. PICTURES OF CUSTOMERS
• Begin with customers' perceptions of their needs
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Customers' perceptions of their needs
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Challenge for pictures: predicting needs
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Challenge for pictures: "shoulds"
• Challenge for pictures: emotional needs
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Pictures should highlight what customers value
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A big complication in pictures — the DMU
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Another big complication — differences among customers
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Summary
•
Outside-in actions
5. BETTER PICTURES OF CUSTOMERS
• Add insights into customers' behavior
• Customers' buying behavior: start with awareness
• Customers' buying behavior: evaluation and decision
• Customers' usage behaviors
• Customers' communication needs and communication behaviors
• Using a better customer picture
• Using other customer pictures
• Better value propositions
• Summary
• Outside-in actions
6. OUTSIDE-IN STRATEGY
• An explicit customer reason for everything
• Explicitness is essential
• Outside-in strategy
• A strategy example
• Strategic lessons from more examples
• Three more outside-in concepts: FOCUS, INERTIA and SCALE
• Outside-in strategy gives you a competitive leg up
• Summary
• Outside-in actions
7. OUTSIDE-IN PRODUCT DECISIONS
• Customers' needs and perceptions are what count
• Customer perceptions are what count
• Customers see augmented products
• Augmentation brings both risks and opportunities
• Focus on augmentation that customers will value
• Customers may also need follow-on products
• Focus on customers' perceptions of product standards
• The importance of standards to customers varies
• Summary
• Outside-in actions
8. OUTSIDE-IN PRICING
• Customer benefits are the key
• Pricing approaches: seller's cost or customer's benefit
• Why benefit pricing — or maybe market pricing
• The power of benefit pricing
• Actually doing benefit pricing
• Roles of price in marketplace strategy
• The most dangerous pricing strategy
• A few more insights about costs
• Summary
• Outside-in actions
9. OUTSIDE-IN COMMUNICATION
• Fit customers' communication needs and habits
• Start with customers' communication needs and habits
• Determine communication's role within strategy
• More about sales in outside-in strategy
• Match customers' communication patterns
• Communicate about customer benefits
• A communication challenge: tuned-out customers
• Customers, advertising and brands
• Summary
• Outside-in actions
10. OUTSIDE-IN CHANNELS OF DISTRIBUTION
• Channels for customers and channels as customers
• Distribution channels to fit customers
• Distribution in marketplace strategy
• Channel members: customers, partners and competitors
• Distribution is a high-inertia tool
• Distribution today — challenge and opportunity
• Summary
• Outside-in actions
11. RESEARCHING CUSTOMERS
• Continuously improving the customer pictures
• Realistic expectations for customer research
• Sensible customer research
• Potential sources of information
• An overall approach — research in stages
• A research example
• Types of research
• Common mistakes in researching customers
• Summary
• Outside-in Actions
12. CHOOSING MARKETS, CUSTOMERS AND PARTNERS
• Key tasks for many entrepreneurs
• Choice of initial market
• Should market size determine the choice?
• Choice of initial customers
• A common tradeoff in choosing initial customers
• Why not find partners?
• Getting partners to participate
• Summary
• Outside-in actions
13. THE OUTSIDE-IN CORPORATION
• The bad news and the good news
• A few more outside-in tools
• Steps in the outside-in discipline |
