The other day I was involved in a discussion group in which a sales rep for a small IT company was asking for suggestions on acquiring more leads. Several good suggestions came up. One person offered that the most important thing the sales person needed to do was understand his company's product. Another recommended creating a detailed client profile. Still others offered thoughts on everything from cold calling to direct response.

I think we confused the poor fellow.

Here was a person who was trying to attract more customers to his company, but he wasn't being given any clear direction as to how to go about doing so. No wonder he was so eaten up with anxiety. He wanted simple solutions for bringing in business leads.

We were all off base in the suggestions we gave him.

Time and again companies face the same difficulties:

• Attracting customers.
• Retaining the customers they have attracted.
• Helping customers be successful with their products and services.
• Keeping the right employees engaged and focused on delivering the company's unique value to both external and internal customers.

It is a company's focus on (a) what it does consistently well and (b) what sort of business it sets itself up to be that makes the difference. When the company's focus strays, customers know it and start looking elsewhere for answers to their problems.

What keeps companies focused is attention to the right things as modeled by its leaders and practiced by every employee, every single day. You cannot store attention. You must remember and reinforce what the company does consistently well, what its chosen business principles are, and who it serves not just once in awhile, but ideally in every meeting, at every point of contact, in every moment.

In the case of the IT company sales person looking for leads, the most important thing his company can do is take stock of what it is, what it does, and who it serves. It must use those elements to create the compass that points toward its ideal customers. Armed with such information, the sales rep cannot help but be successful.

It all comes down to who we serve, doesn't it, and how we serve them, not the other way around. It isn't our products or services that matter.

It's our focus on serving the wants of the customer that makes all the difference.

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Michael Knowles, co-author of The Entrepreneur's Concept Assessment Toolbook (available at http://www.booklocker.com/books/1988.html or Amazon.com) helps businesses take what they do best and focus it on success. A Principal in One Straight Line LLC, Michael has over 25 years of experience helping companies create communication strategies help them engage customers, employees, investors, outsourcing partners, and the community.

Michael can be reached at mknowles@onestraightline.com.

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