I almost cringe making this my first post, out of fear readers will run away screaming, thinking I don’t have unique insights to share, but it’s so important, so fundamental, and yet so infrequently done, I feel it bears repeating even for the umpteenth time.

This is a top-of-mind topic at the moment as I’m just wrapping up a project for a client in which an associate and I interviewed over a dozen customers to gauge their reaction to proposed messaging and positioning statements leading up to the launch of a new version of one of their major products.

It seems like a “duh” moment for me to be writing this, but I was struck as my associate and I were doing the final analysis and presenting the findings to the client, as to how important and fundamental this exercise is/was, yet how infrequently done. The feedback was invaluable, and while the client’s messaging was 85% on track, the 15% adjustments that were made could make a major difference in how well the messaging (and the product) is received in the marketplace. These conversations with customers helped the company realize its proposed product naming was off track and now they are now going in an entirely different direction from the one they had been pursuing before we conducted the interviews.

Having run marketing organizations for close to a dozen tech companies large and small (both as a full-time employee and on an interim basis as a consultant), and having seen dozens more over the ten years I’ve been doing consulting, I know for a fact that talking to customers is an exception rather than the rule when tech companies are making key decisions, launching new products, or adjusting their messaging. And yet the insights you gain, from simple, basic adjustments to word choice, all the way to revamping your core product strategy, can be profoundly important.

And it doesn’t take much time or effort. You can certainly do it yourself if you are so inclined. Split up your customer list and assign a few to each executive and marketing manager in your company. Or, it if’s too difficult to set aside the time, you can always outsource the task to a trusted consultant (requisite self-serving plug for my own business). For more advanced practitioners, setting up a customer advisory council that you tap into frequently can yield a wealth of input.

Finally, there are benefits beyond simply what you learn from your customers. Actively engaging and listenting to them can be a contributing factor to turning them into strong advocates for your company and product. And with so much clutter and confusion in many technology markets today, having strong customer references and positive word of mouth can go a long way, especially for earlier-stage startups.

So to borrow from Nike: just do it. Go out and talk to your customers. Do customer satisfaction surveys, win-loss analyses, and tests for proposed product strategies and messaging statements. The insights you gain will be invaluable.