If you run a small business or market your professional services, you probably spend a lot of time thinking about your current and potential clients. If you’re selling something, you already know that focusing on your customers is a key to business success.

But whether you market directly to paying clients or push papers in the middle of a large institution, you can bring new power to your work life by intensifying your focus on your “customers.”

The first step is to be clear about your organization’s external customers. Know how current and potential clients are categorized (such is by needs or demographics), and know which categories are most important to your organization’s success.

Beyond your attention to actual buyers, you can add greater value to your organization or network by providing better service to a broader range of internal “customers.” In other words, you’ll be more productive if you treat your colleagues like valued clients.

In most business interactions there is some element of exchange, with at least one person offering information or some other product or service to another person. To identify your current and potential “customers,” think about what you do on the job. Think of the specific things you do as creating “products” that have value to your associates.

You can become a more valuable team member by offering more products and better by serving your customers, whether they are internal or external. If you want to sharpen your focus on customers, here are some strategies to consider:

• Let ‘em know you care. Research suggests that the main reason customers stop doing business with a particular firm is that it seems disinterested or indifferent. Cultivate empathy for your actual and potential clients. People will respond positively if they sense that you genuinely want to be helpful. Listen to their problems, and let them know that you are aware of their needs and frustrations.
  
  
• Spot new customers. Even if your work is highly specialized, your range of potential customers may be broader than you realize. The better you understand others’ needs, the more likely it is that you will find a way to develop them as clients. Borrow a concept from marketing experts and think of client development as a 5-step process in which you move a prospect through these phases:
  • Strangers
  • Friends
  • Customers
  • Loyal Customers, and
  • Former Customers.
    
  
  
• Frequency builds trust. Trust is a key to making new sales, and familiarity is the first step toward trust. Find ways to let potential customers know that you’re around, and keep reminding them about what you have to offer.
  
  
• Seek referrals. Let your current customers know that you’re seeking additional opportunities for getting involved. Most people do enjoy making recommendations, partly because they hope that you’ll do the same for them.
  
  
• Offer more to key customers. When we think about developing more demand for our products and services, we may concentrate on attracting new buyers. Sometimes a better approach is to offer more options to the customers you already have.
  
  
• Broaden your impact. To gradually expand your role and build your relationships, provide your customers with a little bit more than they expect in each transaction. Offer them information and support while constantly searching for new ways that you can help.
  
  
• Ask and listen. Asking questions is an excellent way to better understand needs that you might be able to meet. And listening more effectively to the answers may dramatically improve your communications with your co-workers, prospects and clients. It becomes a cycle: the better your questions, the more successful you’ll become at listening to and understanding others’ concerns. (For more on listening, see my August 2 ezine.)
  
  
• Be positive. If you seem negative when you’re interacting with other people, then negativity is what you’ll get in response, and some people will actually avoid you. But if you adopt a can-do attitude, your positive tone will be contagious and people will want to have you on their team.
  
  
• Be helpful. The essence of good networking is finding ways to help others succeed. In addition to offering your primary products and services, keep an eye out for small opportunities to assist other people to get their jobs done.

Copyright ©2005, ClearWays Consulting, LLC  & Beverly E. Jones