Consider Dell Computer. Each corporate account can have a separate on-line profile that tells Dell what configurations of hardware and software the company wants. Each customer's profile is different, based on interactions with the customer.

When a person at a customer account orders a piece of equipment (whether a server or a personal computer), that equipment will come preloaded with just the capabilities and software that are needed to work best for that company without any further activity by the Information Technology staff. This compatibility across all the equipment allows all the tasks to run faster and more reliably for their intended purposes in a given application.

How can your business model go from providing consistent potential benefits to all customers to tailoring those benefits specifically to individual customers and sell at today's prices? The odds are pretty good that you can, because many people don't want expensive-to-provide aspects of your current offerings.

At the same time, others would be willing to pay a premium for the same aspects. The cost of obtaining and responding to the right information for what to provide should be a lot less than the cost of providing the wrong combinations of aspects for almost every customer. If you find the challenge insuperable, many contract manufacturers and outsourced service suppliers have the ability to help you put processes in place to fulfill these individual needs.

Copyright 2008 Donald W. Mitchell, All Rights Reserved

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