Drive Revenue by Knowing Your Audience
By: Richard Glejzer, PhD, Interim Dean of Graduate Studies Friday, October 30, 2020 08:41 AM
Businesses survive and thrive because they meet customers’ needs. This fact can be taken for granted, but having a current and in-depth understanding of your customer base is central to business growth. “The most sophisticated firms are making emotional connection part of a broad strategy that involves every function in the value chain, from product development and marketing to sales and service,” according to Harvard Business Review.
Muhlenberg’s Organizational Leadership courses teach you how to design business development models based on the resources you have in your organization, without losing sight of the needs of your customers. A recent Forbes article underscores the importance of this skill. “Instead of thinking about all the ways your product is better than your competitors’ and figuring out how to market it to your customers, it can be far more effective to think about your customers’ problems and understand them deeply before you even start working.” Knowing your audience is key to providing them with products and services that keep them coming back for more.
Engage with Emotion
“The traditional economic model assumes that everyone is a rational,” said Joshua Meredith, J.D., Adjunct Faculty, Muhlenberg College’s School of Graduate Studies. “We need to be able to think about the reality of how make decisions.” Nobel Prize winners and behavioral economists Daniel Kahneman and Richard Thaler proved that emotions play a major role in the way people make decisions about spending money.
Leaders who succeed in today’s economy must have a dual focus. “They have to have one eye on the operations and logistics of running the business while keeping an eye on how their customers may change their spending choices based on what’s happening in the world around them,” said Meredith.
Become a Leader with Essential Skills
Professionals who want to secure a better job, or get ahead in their current positions find that our Master’s of Organizational Leadership program teaches them skills that are in high demand among regional employers, including business development.
Want to build valuable expertise in essential and complex tasks such as financing organizational operations and growth, applying logic models, revenue development, and sustainable competitive performance? Our courses combine theory and practice, enabling you to stand out at work as a leader by applying what you learn.
If you’re ready to enrich your resume with business expertise that’s hard to ignore, please contact us to get more information about our flexible, student-centered graduate offerings.
About the Muhlenberg College School of Graduate Studies
The Muhlenberg College School of Graduate Studies offers a variety of post-baccalaureate certificates and master’s degrees aimed at enhancing intellectual and career development through challenging coursework grounded in the liberal arts. With a mix of graduate certificate pathways and master’s degrees aligned with workforce and economic trends, the Muhlenberg College School of Graduate Studies enables students to prepare for professional work and career advancement, with a focus on leadership and innovation.