It was a busy Saturday morning in the department store. Lucy, the kitchen appliance sales assistant didn’t have a lot of time on her hands. She needed to work as efficiently as possible while ensuring that customers felt seen and heard. Lucy’s first customer was shopping for an electric blender. Like many customers, she felt so overwhelmed by the array of choices she was unlikely to buy anything—until Lucy expertly helped her to narrow them down with one simple question.

“What do you want to do with it?”

The ability to understand what a customer wants to do next has spawned countless successful business ideas from Facebook to the Dyson vacuum cleaner. When you are aware of the context shaping the story the customer tells herself, you put yourself in the best possible position to serve her and grow your business.

What does your customer want to do next?
What must you do next to help her get to where she wants to go?

Image by Yassan.