If your business is not reaching the success you’d want it to be, maybe it is time for a change in your products. You want your products to be unique and appealing to your customers at the same time, which can seem like a difficult challenge. Don’t worry—here is how you can improve your products and create ones that your customers will love.

Invest in Market Research

Investing in market research helps you know your customers, your competition, and the industry you’re in. When you understand your audience, you can pinpoint what they want and how to best cater your product to their wants and preferences.

Consider implementing competitive intelligence—which involves gathering and analyzing data in order to better understand your market—to help improve your products. Competitive intelligence benefits many industries and might be beneficial to your own business. You can gain a better understanding of how your competitors are responding to customer needs and how you as a business can better appeal to your customers’ wants.

Solve a Problem

The most effective products seek to solve a problem. Think of your product design in terms of what problems it can solve for your customers. Identify your customers’ “pain points” through research, then brainstorm how to solve those problems with a product. Perhaps they need solutions to financial, productivity, process, or support problems. You can market a product that is less expensive than other options, helps them use their time more efficiently, improves internal processes, or helps give your customers better support. The best products are actually solutions, and you should market the problem rather than focusing on the item or service you are selling.

Identify Your Weaknesses

What has motivated past potential customers to choose not to purchase your products? Was it poor service, or have your products outlived their effectiveness? Using reviews and surveys, see if you can pinpoint weak spots in your product choices and design. If you can isolate where you’ve gone wrong in the past, you can discover hints as to where you should go in the future and improve customer retention. Talking openly with past customers can generate the kind of feedback you need to reach these conclusions. Simply ask them what prompted them to say no to what you are offering. It can be as easy as that.

With a little research and a lot of thinking outside the box, you can turn your products from somewhat desirable to unique and perfect for your individual customers. Learn about what your customers need, the problems they’d like to solve, and your own weaknesses in order to improve your products.

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