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Choose Your Clients Carefully
By: Dr Gary S Goodman
Right now, I?m at a crossroads, because I don?t know exactly whom to serve, and I have an opportunity to set a new direction.
To clarify, I?m a consultant and a coach and an independent businessperson, so I can select any company, organization, individual, place and time in which to deliver my services.
If I want to focus on helping small theaters to sell seats to grateful audiences, I can do that.
I can cater to governments, city, state, and national, teaching them customer service skills.
I can even ply my trade in foreign countries, if I want to take on that challenge, and do some big time traveling.
In the past, my books and articles, and public seminars determined whom I would serve.
Attendees and readers would invite me to speak, consult, and train their associates, back at their companies and organizations. Sometimes, I?d be working with software firms, at other times, with financial companies, and occasionally at tractor distributorships.
So, I allowed clients to choose me, which had variety, randomness, and a degree of spontaneity going for it. And to an extent, these are still sources of activity for me.
But now, I?m being more proactive because readers and seminar attendees aren?t my only audiences. There are countless people I can assist who will never walk into a bookstore or read an ezine or go to a public program.
So, what am I facing: Is it simply a marketing question or something more?
Choosing whom to serve is typically thought to be a marketing question, as in, what SIC code should I select to send my mailers to, or what demographic am I seeking to consume my coffee flavored fizzy drink?
Ideally, should we feel some attraction to a type of challenge, activity, or company to energize and inspire our efforts? Or, do we need to be clinical about the matter, gathering intelligence about the firms that can afford and appreciate our offerings?
Or is it a little of both?
As I see it, we need to select our customers and clients with care and precision because not only will we shape them; they?ll shape us.
For example, I know a coach who likes to help attorneys to improve their practices.
He?s not a lawyer, but he likes hanging out with them, feeling he is adding value.
I?ve offered my seminars through more than 40 universities, for much the same reason. We?re on the same page, revering knowledge, and enjoying the process of delivering it and sharing it.
Our clients can pay us in more ways than with money. They can make us feel gratified, important, meaningful, necessary, and vital.
I?ll never forget telling one of my professors that I was leaving college teaching for consulting. He listened, and with a sparkle in his eye, he said:
?That?s fine; if you can live without it!?
He didn?t mean a big paycheck.
What he did mean, is something we have to figure out for ourselves, that extra, but essential reward that we can get from serving the right people at the right time!
Dr. Gary S. Goodman, President of Customersatisfaction.com, is a popular keynote speaker, management consultant, and seminar leader and the best-selling author of 12 books, including Reach Out & Sell Someone?, You Can Sell Anything By Telephone! and Monitoring, Measuring & Managing Customer Service, and the audio program, ?The Law of Large Numbers: How To Make Success Inevitable,? published by Nightingale-Conant. He is a frequent guest on radio and television, worldwide. A Ph.D. from USC's Annenberg School, a Loyola lawyer, and an MBA from the Peter F. Drucker School at Claremont Graduate University, Gary offers programs through UCLA Extension and numerous universities, trade associations, and other organizations in the United States and abroad. He holds the rank of Shodan, 1st Degree Black Belt in Kenpo Karate. He is headquartered in Glendale, California, and he can be reached at (818) 243-7338 or at: gary@customersatisfaction.com. |  |
