Henry Ford famously said: "If I had asked customers what they wanted, they would have said a faster horse."
Most people use this quote to justify not listening to customers. That's completely missing the point.
Ford's customers were actually telling him two critical things:
The Pain: "We want to get places faster" Their Solution: "Give us a speedier horse"
Ford was brilliant because he heard the pain but ignored their proposed solution. He solved the real problem in a revolutionary way.
Here's what Ford teaches us about customer intelligence:
Listen deeply to the pain but don't blindly build their proposed solution.
Customers are exceptional at describing their problems. They're usually not great at prescribing solutions. Your job is to capture the problem and find a better way to solve it.
The most valuable customer feedback isn't in formal surveys or quarterly business reviews. It's hidden in everyday interactions:
The offhand comment in a support ticket; The frustration mentioned during a routine call; The workaround described in an email; The "by the way" comment at the end of a meeting.
These casual mentions reveal true pain points because customers aren't trying to impress anyone or provide the "right" answer.
This is where growing B2B companies face their biggest challenge.
When you have five customers, you naturally hear every pain point. When you have 500 customers, most of these signals get lost in the noise.
Customer Success managers become overwhelmed. Product teams rely on filtered, second-hand information. Executives make decisions based on incomplete data.
The result? Companies miss critical pain points until they become major problems – or worse, until customers leave for competitors who heard the signal first.
The companies that succeed at scale are those that systematically capture and act on customer pain across every interaction. They don't just collect feedback; they analyze patterns, identify recurring themes, and ensure the right teams get the right information at the right time.
Remember: customers hand you the problem. Your job is to find the solution – and to make sure you never miss hearing about the problem in the first place.
