Inside-out or Outside-in? 4 Reasons Why Your Business Has to Change

In the old days, a business model was based on the organization’s own objectives. This way of thinking is untenable in today’s market. In our age of market disruptions and Digital Transformation, it’s all about the outside world. Inside-out thinking makes way for outside-in thinking.

It used to be so simple: manufacturers made great products, marketed them, and sold them. The earnings were good or even excellent, and the continuity of the company was secure. This way of thinking is called “inside-out thinking:” basing a business model on the organization’s own objectives.

Inside-out thinking is untenable in today’s market. The new approach is the exact opposite: “outside-in thinking.” That means that a company’s focus is on developments and demands from the outside world. Why is the latter approach on the rise? There are 4 main reasons.

We are living in a transparent market that favors the consumer. Online, she can compare reviews and prices for different suppliers.

Furthermore, the unprecedented power of social media makes a dissatisfied customer a dangerous adversary. “Nowadays, failure is just a hashtag away,” as my colleague Matthijs Rosman put it succinctly.

Because of the World Wide Web and globalization, competition from comparable products is greater than ever. You not only compete by making the best product, but also by offering the best service.

It is the sum of his experience that will make a customer decide if he will stay loyal. That is why it is important to match his wishes perfectly.

Even before the commercial adoption of the internet, there was a rapidly growing percentage of the public space occupied by advertising messages. Today, consumers are constantly being bombarded with advertising messages and other information through their smartphones. Furthermore, the number of public display advertisements is still growing, and often incorporating video.

These developments make it hard for advertisers to stand out. They have to base their proposal principally on the customers’ wishes and target them in an intelligent, fine-grained way.

It is a story that has been told many times but cannot be told enough. The taxi and hotel industries were taken by storm by the new kids on the block who had a new approach. Uber and Airbnb may be clichés, but they are warnings too.

You don’t want the competition to take the juiciest parts of your market. That is why you have to be proactive and see new opportunities before others do.

Now that I have given you pressing reasons to transform your business model, you may ask me: “Where do I begin?” I want to invite you to take the following actions:

• Discover what the customer really wants. Use a data analytics solution to accomplish this, but also talk to customers on a regular basis.
• Make sure that the customer already knows you before she needs your product. How? By using content marketing.
• See complaints as an opportunity to improve your product or service. Moreover, to detect complaints as quickly as possible, use a monitoring tool.
• Keep a close eye on your own market as well as technological developments in other industries that can ultimately affect your market. Use advice from experts such as futurists, or talk to the growth hackers at RevelX.