Lead The Field: Best Customer?
Do you really know who your customer is or do you just claim everybody to be your customer? Some businesses open their front door and service hundreds or thousands of people. They think that everybody is the customer but I believe that some of them are just transactions. Today more than ever before we really need to get to know the customer. As the song says, "Getting to know you." If I don't know who they are, why they buy from me, what their changing needs are, how can I ever stay in a leadership position in any product or sector?
We need to build a best customer profile. The simplest way is to just go back over all the customers you've interacted with over the last 12 to 18 months. Build a profile of the ones that: First, seem to be the easiest to work with. Second, have the money to spend. Third, have an ongoing need for your product or service. And lastly, were willing to come back to you again because you did something that made you stand out in terms of your service ability. The profile is an ongoing effort. It can come from tracking transactions to gathering additional information.
Harvey McCain, in his book, gave us a complete outline of all the questions we need to have to get to know the customer. Certainly it is necessary to pair those one hundred questions down to about 15 that really focus on the profile you're looking for and seeking to serve. Is it a midsize business owner who has been in service for 15 years who wants to out-source their back room so you can in-source your technologies and service? Are they looking for information analysis and a product that is serviced over time? Were they looking for a system from you that they don't have to develop themselves?
If they're a customer, they're looking for a knowledge and a quality. And what is their profile? We need to take the hundred or thousand customers that we serve, pair them down to about 20% of those, and then isolate the ones that have the greatest potential to: A, buy a product on an ongoing basis. B, give us input on what's happening in the marketplace in terms of their changing needs and help us stay competitive. And C, willing to tell others about us. This is when we have a profiled customer.
I've always felt that the best leadership companies own the best customers. Hertz has the best customers. Mercedes has the best customers. Now I'm not saying that Jaguar doesn't have the best customers, but Jaguar has the best customers for their market segment just like Mercedes has the best customers for their market segment. If they understand who that customer is, they don't spend most of their time trying to service a customer who has no potential.
It's been challenging in the marketplace to watch companies and individuals spend so much time with somebody who will never be a great customer while they're not focusing time on the best customer's satisfaction. We pass out questionnaires after the transaction to find out how we did rather than find out what we could have done that would have made us different. Focus those questionnaires on your best customers, not just the rest of your customers.
About the Author
 Thomas Winninger is the founder of WINNINGER Visionscope a Minneapolis based Think Tank. He is author of the best selling books MarketQuake, Price Wars, Full Price and Sell Easy and his just published book BULLSEYE! - What Market Leaders are doing to consistently HIT the BULLSEYE! Thom is one of the most in-demand business speakers in the North America today. For more information about his programs please visit,
BULLSEYE! How Market Leaders consistently hit The Mark
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