Do Business Well

The horizontal axis of our matrix represents the degree to which customers are willing to seek advice or help.

The self-reliant people, in the left quadrants, like to mow their own grass, but those on the right prefer to hire a maintenance service and free up their time for other tasks. In a restaurant, some prefer to help themselves at the buffet or use the take-out service, while others don’t mind waiting to be served at the table.

There’s more at work here than time pressure alone: Customers clearly occupy a range of attitudes, from do-it-myself independence to a heavy reliance on others. A supplier who confuses one type (”I’m just browsing; I’ll call you when I need help”) with the other (”Could you show me what’s available and help me make up my mind?”) does so at her peril.

In the process of purchasing, a customer’s decision to rely solely on himself or to leverage others depends mainly on how complex he perceives the decision will be.

When the task at hand is simple, self-reliance may be the answer. But in other cases, we have no choice but to call on others. As technology keeps adding layers of complexity to life, it often seems that the more intelligence is embedded in our products, the more human intelligence it takes to acquire, use, and repair them. Fewer and fewer people can fix their own cars or upgrade the hard drives in their computers.

Even if consumers are not entirely prepared to perform a specific task, they may treasure their independence or just not feel like bringing a supplier up to speed on a complex problem. Suppose you have just completed your tax returns but would like a CPA to check your work. Your accountant, however, requests all sorts of documentation to feed his computer programs and generate his version of your returns. He also expects the same fee he would charge had he done the returns from scratch. “Too much trouble,” you decide; “I’ll take my chances alone.” In other words, customers are likely to balk when the cost or effort of switching from self-reliance to leveraging others is greater than they are willing to expend.

In a heavy surf, even a good swimmer may need help. Customers are no different. If your septic system needs replacement, if you need surgery, or if you want to sell your company, it is time to relinquish your self-reliance and hire the best help you can afford. But the greater the scope of the buying decision, the higher the stake, so it is crucial that you scrutinize your prospective suppliers. It is logical that the quality and quantity of your help increases as the problem becomes bigger and more complex. You need a supplier who you trust, who genuinely understands your aim, and with whom you can share your sense of apprehension. This is especially important if your bias is to be self-reliant and you are only reluctantly asking for help.

To this point, we have considered the willingness to change and readiness to accept help as separate ways to sort out customers. But it is where the two axes intersect to form the quadrants as we have defined them that gives managers their most useful view of the changing priorities of the customer universe. The customer who combines self-reliance with a fondness for routine behaves quite differently from the consumer who is just as change-averse but wants help and advice. While variations along each axis create an almost infinite number of customer types, the four main classifications are essential to managers trying to understand their markets.

Here is the previous matrix, with additional labels in each of the four quadrants—searchers, streamliners, delegators, and collaborators. As the arrows suggest, the more the market is fluctuating (which means heightened change pressures and complexities), the more we will see customers‘ priorities shifting away from the center toward one of the four distinctive behavioral patterns.

Let’s apply the matrix to a single set of decisions and examine how various shopping types might buy their dinner. The top left quadrant, which holds the searchers, as I refer to them (self-reliant and open to change), would be represented by a gourmet who plans a menu, shops carefully at a different store for each ingredient, cooks for hours, and relishes each bite. At the bottom left is the streamliner (self-reliant, but at the same time relishing routine) — in this case, a stereotypical bachelor who buys a case of baked beans once a month and eats a can for dinner every evening. Moving to the top right (collaborators), the gourmet who is willing to accept help with new experiences could go to a restaurant and spend half an hour reading the menu. (A representative of the group at the extreme top right, in full collaboration mode, could call in advance to discuss the day’s special possibilities with the chef, planning the meal with his suggestions and advice.) Moving to the right in the bottom tier (delegators), the change-averse bachelor who is more willing to accept help could order a ready-cooked dinner for delivery—possibly the same dinner every night. Someone meeting the criteria for the extreme lower right would, in full delegation mode, let the take-out cook who knows his preferences plan variations on the meal for him.

In the following pages, we will examine each of the four customer buying patterns. Later in the book, separate chapters are devoted to the care and feeding of customers displaying these patterns, analyzing not only how the new market leaders have learned to capture them but how they perpetuate their leadership.

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