What do you do if you want to tap into the potential benefits of feedback from external sources?

1 Identify your feedback goals

Before you seek feedback from outside your organization, you need to have a clear idea of what you want to achieve with it. Do you want to validate your assumptions, test your ideas, or explore new opportunities? Do you want to improve your products, services, or processes, or increase your customer satisfaction or loyalty? Having specific and measurable feedback goals will help you decide who to ask, what to ask, and how to use the feedback.

2 Choose your feedback sources

Depending on your feedback goals, you may want to reach out to different types of external sources. These could include your customers, potential customers, competitors, industry experts, mentors, peers, or partners. Each source can offer a different perspective, insight, or experience that can help you improve your business strategy. However, you also need to consider the quality, relevance, and reliability of the feedback you receive from each source. For example, you may want to use surveys, interviews, or focus groups to collect feedback from your customers or potential customers, while you may want to use benchmarking, analysis, or networking to get feedback from your competitors or industry experts.

3 Prepare your feedback questions

Once you have identified your feedback goals and sources, you need to prepare your feedback questions. Your questions should be clear, concise, and relevant to your goals and sources. They should also be open-ended, inviting, and constructive, rather than closed-ended, leading, or critical. For example, you could ask questions like "What do you like most about our product/service?" or "How could we make our product/service better for you?" or "What are some of the challenges or opportunities you see in our industry?" rather than questions like "Do you think our product/service is good?" or "Do you have any complaints about our product/service?" or "What are we doing wrong in our industry?"

4 Manage your feedback process

When you solicit feedback from external sources, you need to manage your feedback process effectively. This means that you need to communicate your feedback goals and expectations clearly, respect your feedback sources' time and privacy, and thank them for their input. You also need to be open-minded, respectful, and curious when you receive feedback, rather than defensive, dismissive, or argumentative. You should listen actively, ask clarifying questions, and summarize the key points of the feedback. You should also record, organize, and analyze the feedback you receive, and look for patterns, trends, or gaps that can inform your business strategy.

5 Apply your feedback results

The final and most important step of tapping into the potential benefits of feedback from external sources is to apply your feedback results to your business strategy. This means that you need to evaluate the feedback you receive critically, and compare it with your own data, assumptions, and goals. You also need to prioritize the feedback that is most relevant, useful, and actionable for your business strategy, and decide how to implement it. You may need to make changes, improvements, or innovations to your products, services, or processes, or create new value propositions, market segments, or competitive advantages. You should also monitor and measure the impact of the feedback on your business performance, and seek feedback again to test and refine your business strategy.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?