REALLY, WHY DOES PRODUCT INNOVATION MATTER? The more choices a customer has when solving a problem, the more power the customer has in the sales process. Most every for-profit business exists to sell things and to do so with a decent profit. This requires customers to spend money on what is being sold. It can seem that the customer yields tremendous power over the success of your business. Where does this power come from? Is it from their ability to write a check? If the client has a problem that they need solved, a job they need to get done, what good is their money? The client’s power over you comes from the availability of alternatives. Effective innovation can provide clear differentiation, limiting customer choices. Clearly differentiated products are easier to sell and produce higher margins. If they're looking at you as just another commodity, a commodity they can get from a dozen different places, they have ultimate power over you always. If they don’t understand the product, it will be placed into the bucket of what they do understand, a commodity.