In today’s tough economy, developing outstanding products and services that win over new customers and keep existing ones coming back is the key to success. The problem is, your competitors are thinking along those same lines, says Dan Adams, author of New Product Blueprinting: The Handbook for B2B Organic Growth. But you can outwit your rivals, he notes, simply by putting a halt to the business development sins that so many business-to-business companies commit, such as:

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• Imagining customers’ needs. Most suppliers start the new product process with their solution, validate it with some customers, and measure market needs by watching sales results — after the product launch. Companies should invert this process. Begin with customer needs and end with supplier solutions.

• Relying on sales reps to capture customer needs. A salesperson is unlikely to uncover a full set of market needs if he or she is rewarded for near-term selling, is unable to reach true decision makers, or is not calling on most of the customers in his or her target market. But put a good salesperson on a team with marketing and technical colleagues, train all in advance b-to-b interviewing methods, and you’ll run circles around your competitors.

• Gathering only qualitative customer feedback. What you need is quantitative data, which measure customer importance and satisfaction on key outcomes. Skip quantification and your new product will be based on assumptions, bias, and wishful thinking.

• Listening only to immediate customers. It’s a mistake to interview only your direct customers because they are usually unable or unwilling to disclose downstream customers’ deepest needs. When developing a business development plan, you need to weigh the buying power and value chain position of downstream customers.

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