The purpose of a business is to create a customer, declared Peter Drucker.  How do you create a customer? You provide something – a service, a product, a solution – (referred to as the Product in the Marketing Mix) they need AND want. In the B2B world, this want and/or need is typically to solve a business problem. The bigger the business problem, the more urgent, and the better your offer addresses the more likely and faster you are to create a customer.

Therefore, a key part of any business is to be clear about the problem you solve.  Creating a solution before identifying the problem can have devastating consequences. Even if you’re convinced that you have the next best idea ever, it is a good idea to validate that there is a need in the market.

Do They Need and Want Their Problem Solved?

Determining the need for your offer doesn’t always require sophisticated research.  I’ll use our company to illustrate this point.  In 1999, a colleague and I were receiving a lot of calls from local firms looking for Marketing help. It made us wonder whether there was an opportunity to build our own firm. We decided to use these conversations to determine whether to pursue the idea of our firm further.

As we engaged in these conversations, we started asking more questions about the challenges they were facing. Was it just that they needed more people, or did they have real challenges and problems to solve?  Topics such as clearer product definition, messaging, and positioning; better competitive intelligence and customer information to improve go-to-market strategy, targeting, and measurement of Marketing; improved and in some cases development of Marketing processes.  Ah, we thought, that’s why our backgrounds in research/data/analytics, measurement, and operations were important. Now that we understood the problem, we probed further to try and learn how important it was for them to solve these problems – did they just want it or did they truly need it? Turns out it was pretty important then, and it remains important today. These two recurring themes, the desire to be more customer-centric and to make more data-derived decisions, persist today.

The point of the story is that, as experienced marketers, we understand that successful companies solve problems. For your organization to position itself and develop a compelling value proposition, you must be able to clearly articulate the problem and understand how you are better and different from alternatives, including the alternative of doing nothing.

How Does Your Solution Make a Difference

For us, it was important that we would be able to make a difference. As a member of the leadership team, I imagine that’s important to your company. I truly believe that understanding how you are going to make a difference in the market and create value for your customers is the fundamental question for every business professional. In the words of Richard Branson of Virgin, “Business people have to think about how their business can actually better this world.”

New ideas, good ideas, and creative ideas are all awesome, but to be worthy, they must be wanted and needed by the market. It’s also easy to be lured by a hot trend or the latest cool idea. Your intuition may tell you that your business is wanted and needed, but it is nice to have the data to back it up. Market and customer research are critical to understanding who your business will serve, the problem you are solving, and whether your solution will make a difference. The more you can quantify how your solution will make a difference, the better. It is vital you know this before you develop or execute any Marketing.

Key takeaways: Nourish your company with data. Cultivate an ongoing appetite for customer-focused research. Be able to answer these 6 questions in any conversation with customers, prospects, partners, employees/board members, and influencers about your company:

1. What is the gap in the market you solve?
2. How big is the gap?
3. Who has it?
4. How many people are trying to close this gap?
5. How well does our solution close the gap?
6. What is the difference before vs. after they buy our solution? And between our solution and the competition?

Your Mission is Your North Star

When you know the answers to the above questions, you can proactively frame your mission and value proposition. These two elements serve as the guide for all of your stakeholders and illuminate your business design and strategy.

Your mission statement, which reflects the business problem you solve, should dictate every action you take. If it’s been a while since you reviewed your company’s mission statement, now might be a good time for a review. Take a moment to verify you can answer these three key questions:

1. Are we delivering on our mission statement? If so, how well? If not, do we have a new mission?
2. Is our mission statement still relevant to our customers? The market? If not, what problems are we truly solving, and how should we revise our mission statement accordingly?
3. Why does our business exist today?

Key takeaway:  Be relevant. Craft mission statements that are customer- and market-centric.

This type of work falls directly into the domain of Marketing, Marketing with a capital M. What we often refer to as Upstream Marketing. Without answers to these questions, it will be difficult for any of your Marketing to be effective. Your demand generation programs, which are the downstream part of Marketing,  will face a steep uphill climb.

Solving a Customer Problem is a Daily Mantra

At this moment and hopefully for years to come, we’re enjoying a Goldilocks economy. That will fade. When challenging times return, it is your passion for making a difference and solving a problem that will enable you to survive, maybe even potentially thrive. Thinking about how you make a difference to your customers is something that should be top of mind every day. It will be too late if you’re forced to do it when the bottom falls out.

Only by staying connected to customers and keeping a pulse on the market and competition can you continue to provide solutions and services that make a difference.

As a business leader, take these three steps to model the way:

1. Make time to listen to customers. Create a customer advisory board. Establish a process for engaging with customers on a consistent and regular basis. Share your learnings with your team.
2. Stay in tune with your industry. Join associations and attend the conferences. Be both a student and a teacher in your discipline.
3. Energize your organization. Energy and enthusiasm are contagious. As the leader, you set the mood and create the culture. Do you have a culture open to experimentation? Or is it risk-averse? Is your culture oriented toward growth?

Marketing with a Capital M is needed more than ever. As data and measures have become more prolific, the challenge of data-derived decisions and performance management increased. It turns out the ability to derive insights from the ever-expanding universe of data remains a huge challenge. As the Marketing Technology landscape continues to explode and customers remain in more control over the buying process, process is more important than ever.  As the number of channels expands, the need for strategy and planning escalates.

The market is always changing, and customer problems change. An organization that keeps learning and growing with its market will always be relevant.

Key takeaways:  It is essential to evolve to stay relevant to customers and continue to solve their problems.  This requires Marketing with a Capital M. Stay focused on how your company and its products, including how you service your customers and the experience you create, make a difference. These are essential if you want to be able to continue to create customers.

FAQ:

(written by Penn of Sintra.ai)

Q1: What does it mean that “the purpose of a business is to create a customer”?
A: It means growth begins by solving a real customer problem with an offer customers need and want. In B2B, that “want/need” is typically tied to solving a business problem. The more urgent the problem—and the more effectively your offer addresses it—the more likely (and faster) you are to create customers.

Q2: Why must you be clear about the problem you solve before building a solution?
A: Because creating a solution before validating the problem can have devastating consequences. Even if an idea feels compelling, the market must confirm the need. Successful companies solve problems; they do not assume demand.

Q3: How can you validate market need without sophisticated research?
A: Start with disciplined conversations. Use real interactions with prospects and customers to probe: what challenges they face, how urgent those challenges are, and whether they represent a true need versus a “nice to have.” The point is to use structured questioning to confirm the problem, the importance of solving it, and the willingness to act.

Q4: What must you understand to craft a compelling value proposition and positioning?
A: You must clearly articulate:

• The problem you solve
• Why it matters (urgency and impact)
• How you are better and different than alternatives—including the alternative of doing nothing
  Without this clarity, positioning and value proposition become generic, and downstream Marketing becomes harder and less effective.

Q5: Why is “making a difference” a fundamental business question?
A: Because value creation is the core of sustainable growth. Leaders must understand how the business improves customers’ outcomes and why that improvement matters. The more you can quantify the difference you make, the stronger your strategic clarity, credibility, and go-to-market effectiveness.

Q6: What six questions should you be able to answer in any stakeholder conversation?
A:

1. What is the market gap we solve?
2. How big is the gap?
3. Who has the gap?
4. How many others are trying to close it?
5. How well does our solution close the gap?
6. What is the difference before vs. after purchase—and versus competitors?

Q7: Why is mission a “North Star,” and what should a mission statement reflect?
A: Mission and value proposition guide stakeholders and shape business design and strategy. A mission statement should reflect the customer problem you solve and dictate priorities and actions. If it has been a while since you reviewed it, confirm:

• Are we delivering on our mission—and how well?
• Is the mission still relevant to customers and the market?
• Why does our business exist today?
  Key principle: craft mission statements that are customer- and market-centric.

Q8: What is “Marketing with a capital M,” and why does it matter?
A: It is upstream Marketing: defining the market problem, customer value, positioning, and strategic choices that make downstream demand generation possible. Without upstream clarity, downstream programs face an uphill climb because tactics cannot compensate for unclear value and weak differentiation.

Q9: Why must solving customer problems become a daily mantra—especially in good economic times?
A: Because market conditions change. When downturns occur, relevance and customer value determine survival. Staying connected to customers, monitoring the market and competition, and continuously refining how you make a difference must happen before pressure hits—not after.

Q10: What three steps can leaders take to model customer- and market-centric behavior?
A:

1. Listen to customers consistently: create advisory boards and a regular engagement process; share learnings internally.
2. Stay in tune with the industry: join associations, attend conferences, and remain both a student and a teacher.
3. Energize the organization: set the tone for experimentation and growth; build a culture that is not risk-averse and is oriented toward learning and relevance.

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