Understanding customers - laddering

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Question - How do I find out what my customers real needs, wants and values are?

Answer - The "laddering process" was designed by psychologist George Kelly to identify those needs, wants, values and attitudes which are at the core of our behaviour.

Key action points

The process is called the “Laddering Process”.

If you try out this tool on yourself, the results will surprise you.

It gets very quickly to the heart of why you buy whatever product or service you have in mind.

With a little adaptation, you can also use it to explore your relationships with other people.

The technique was designed by a psychologist called George Kelly who believed that we all carry around with us constructs about the way the world works.

Our most important (core) constructs are very dear to us, and we do not discuss them lightly. We are, however, willing to discuss those of our beliefs which we regard as low risk or disposable (peripheral constructs).

Kelly believed that these peripheral and core constructs are linked, and that you can ladder between the two, by starting at the peripheral constructs and asking why those constructs are important.

The two key questions at each stage are "Why is that important?" and "What are the consequences if you do not have it?"

The start point is to ask the customer to select three suppliers, and to ask how two of them differ from the third.

This provides the three issues which you will explore.

Taking a customer through this process should provide you with deep insights into their needs.

In this test, put yourself in the position of a being a customer talking about existing and potential suppliers of whatever product or service immediately comes to mind.

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