My company has analyzed more than 150 customer surveys in an effort to learn why customers buy particular products or services from particular companies. It is an essential practice for any business owner during any economic cycle, but most do not do it. Our analysis of 10 years of double-blind customer market research for more than 100 businesses revealed that, 90 percent of the time, most businesses do not know their customers' top values. They are often shocked to learn what is at the top of the customers' value list.

As a result of this finding, I offer the following tips for getting to know your customers – and potential customers – so you can deliver what they want and adjust your sales and marketing message to become more relevant.

Customers are Usually Looking for "How" Things are Sold, not "What"
For most products, there are any number of suppliers. If someone wants to buy a camera, a doorknob, a car, they can drive to the nearest store or order from the first company that pops up on Google. But they do not. Why? Because there is something else they value more than the product itself. It may be product durability, the company's reputation for customer service, or safety features. My mantra: If you do not value what you bring to the customer, they will not value it either. Very few companies know how to effectively articulate what differentiates them, so price often becomes the tiebreaker.

Realize That Existing Customers and Prospects Usually Have Different Values
My company's research analysis shows that 70 percent of the time, customers and prospective customers differ in what they most value. When that happens, your message to customers should be different than your message to prospects. Very few companies make this distinction in sales and marketing messaging. Existing customers may have come to depend on your top-notch help desk. It is what they have grown to value most about your company. Prospective customers have not yet used your help desk so they do not know how essential this benefit is yet.

Use What You Learn
If you find customers most value speedy responses when they have a problem, and your customer service department is slow, then fix customer service. Make sure to tell the customer service employees that customers have rated fast response time as their top priority. When you have stats you can brag about – brag away: "98 percent of customer calls are returned within 30 minutes; two percent within one hour." Now you have used that information in two valuable ways. First, to make your company more relevant to customers, and secondly, to let customers know you have what they want.

Invest in Disciplined Customer Research
Research data collection costs have gone down 30 to 35 percent in the past few years and can now be affordable to smaller companies. Double-blind customer market research is the gold standard and well worth the expense, but it is not feasible for all companies. However, even a small investment in research can reap huge returns. Some less expensive and free alternatives to find out what your customers want include sharing the expense with an industry association, partnering with an organization that needs the same information or a peer that does not compete with you, hiring a college intern, or creating an online survey using a free basic service.