Most leadership teams would say they are customer-focused.
But somewhere between budgets, board packs and business-as-usual, something subtle happens.
The customer moves on.
And the business keeps talking to the version it remembers.
Not because anyone is careless.
But because customer expectations now shift faster than internal teams can realistically recalibrate.
By the time performance indicators start flashing, the gap has already opened.
In both B2B and B2C markets, the shift is not always dramatic.
It shows up quietly:
Customers take longer to decide
They ask different questions than they used to
They challenge price earlier
They buy cautiously, or not at all
They don’t return in the same way
This is rarely about demand disappearing.
It is about relevance weakening.
Most organisations are structured to optimise delivery, not reflection.
Marketing teams are:
Busy executing plans signed off months ago
Working to assumptions that once held true
Under pressure to keep momentum, not pause and reassess
Often removed from unfiltered customer conversations
Sales teams feel the friction first, but struggle to articulate it strategically.
Leadership teams see the numbers move, but not always the underlying cause.
This is why relevance gaps persist longer than they should.
These questions are not theoretical.
They are designed to expose misalignment early, before it becomes a revenue issue.
Customer understanding
What matters most to our customer right now, and how do we know?
Which of our assumptions about the customer are more than a year old?
What has changed in their world that we have not responded to?
Value perception
Why do customers choose us today, in their own words?
Where are we being compared purely on price?
What part of our offer feels essential, and what feels interchangeable?
Behavioural signals
Where in the buying journey are decisions slowing?
What objections are sales hearing more often than before?
Which customers are quietly disengaging, and why?
Growth potential
Why do some customers stop at one purchase?
What would need to be true for them to buy more?
Where are we over-investing in activity that no longer influences behaviour?
Leaders often underestimate how willing customers are to be honest, if asked properly.
Useful questions include:
What feels harder for you now than it did a year ago?
What has changed in how you assess risk or value?
What nearly stopped you from choosing us?
What would make you look elsewhere next time?
What does ‘good’ look like from suppliers now?
The answers are rarely about marketing.
But they always have implications for it.
Organisations that stay relevant do a few things consistently:
They revisit customer insight as a discipline, not a project
They separate activity from impact
They invite external challenge before performance drops
They treat marketing as commercial infrastructure, not output
This requires perspective, not just execution.
If your customers are quieter, more cautious, or harder to retain, it is worth asking a simple question:
Have they changed, or have we failed to change with them?
The answer usually determines the next phase of growth.
At The Marketing Centre, this is the work we are most often brought in to support. Not to add noise, but to help leadership teams reconnect customer reality to strategy, value and execution.
If nothing else, use the questions above.
They are often enough to reveal where attention is needed next.