A month. A whole month. I’m looking back on that month in full consciousness that I’ve been so busy working on a project with a new customer that I didn’t have the chance to put a blog together. Thing is, at the end of that month, I had to advise the customer that I would no longer be providing services to them. But they did nothing wrong. They were perfectly nice. They were really happy with the work I did for them. The project objectives were achieved. The problem is, they weren’t my customer.

Huh? How can an organisation seeking professional development services not be a customer of a business that provides professional development?

Many people who know about strategic business decisions already know this. But, for many small and self-employed businesses, the focus is on getting as many customers as possible to provide both work and cash flow. I get it. I’m with you. It’s just that, in this instance, I realised my decision to accept this project had gone directly against my own business strategy.

But… what was actually wrong with that client?

Nothing. Really. From a broad point of view, there was actually nothing wrong. They are a completely viable and respectable business and group of people who sought my services to meet their needs. The issue was in the type of services they required, which simply did not align with the direction I am taking my business.

Maybe an example might help here. Could you imagine a steakhouse being approached by an association of vegetarians to cater for one of their functions? Sure, they can get the resources in, sure they have a chef who could cook up an amazing banquet of delicious vegetarian options. But at the end of the day, they are a steakhouse building a business on providing grilled meats to, well, those of us who are somewhat more carnivorous. It’s not about taking offence to the customer (or offending them, for that matter). It’s just not what they do. That’s what happened in my case as well. The client was the vegetarian to my steakhouse. Both great, both important, but not so compatible. But I forgot the standard response this time. “I’m sorry, we don’t do that here”.

So, once I had handed over final documents and reports and ensured I had met the objectives, I thanked them for the past few weeks of work and bid them farewell.

I walked away from the project being reminded of two questions that really helped solidify who I am as a coaching and training provider. After thinking about those questions, I realised the order in which I answered them also really helped. The same questions apply to an individual considering their career direction. In any case, here they are:

1.       Who ISN’T my customer? (Or, what DON’T I want to be doing?)

2.       Who IS my customer? (Or, what DO I want to be doing?)

Let me break that down a little:

Who ISN’T my customer?

You know, the response to this used to be one of the most frustrating questions that I faced after having helped people with their career development for so many years. I was asking people what they wanted to do and they were responding with what they didn’t want to do. They didn’t want anything extremely physically labour intensive, they didn’t want something too far from home, they didn’t want this or that. When it comes to your personal career decisions, it’s easy to know what you don’t want and you can define that.

From a business perspective, it’s worthwhile understanding where the limits of your service provision exist. For example, your local doctor is completely aware that they can provide advice and direction on heart conditions, however they refer you to a cardiologist for intensive treatment. The doctor knows their limitation here: time, expertise, equipment, etc do not allow for them to provide you intensive assistance to repair your heart. They help identify and diagnose and refer you to the right person. In the same way, it would be negligent of me to be providing forklift training in the absence of the relevant qualifications, licences and experience to do so.

So, here are a few questions you can consider when identifying who is not your customer:

-          What are the limitations of my business capability? This one is about how the skills and qualifications of those who work in the company combine to produce the product or service offering.

-          What legal and ethical limitations exist? Considering the capability, what are we legally allowed to do? What would be right? What would be wrong?

-          What ethical limitations am I willing to impose on myself? Meaning, what are you unwilling to do because of what that means to people/society/your own values, etc?

-          How much risk can the business safely tolerate? In all businesses, there is risk. The question arises as to what level of risk are you prepared to take on. What are the risks to the various internal and external stakeholders – mostly relating to staff and customers?

With some sense of the responses to questions like those above, you will develop the ability to identify what requests from potential customers may not be able to be met by your company. You then can make the choice of either advising that potential customer that you can not provide them the service, or consider expanding the capability of your organisation to fit them in.

Hand in hand with that ability to identify those customers you will develop a good sense of the response to the second question:

Who IS my customer?

This one is easy. Anyone who isn’t an “isn’t my customer”. There is both a simplicity and a complexity in that response.

The simplicity is in a logical deduction: If I know that you don’t fit into “I cannot do that for you” category, then you must be in the list of “I can do it for you” customers. Or, at least, we can properly consider that for you because we have that capability.

At the end of the day, one big question dominates the “who is my customer” category and it is where the complexity lies:

What am I trying to achieve in this business? What are the goals of the organisation? What are you trying to provide to the world? It’s the ever-existential question that all businesses must have a clear answer to: why do I exist? Be prepared to give this one time to answer it well. Not only do you need to identify the impact you’re trying to achieve, but also create some kind of model for how you would do that. That’s complex. That takes a lot of thought. That is why many people resort to business consultants, business mentors and business coaches. We help with that thinking process. The difference is in how that thinking process is facilitated: one uses business models, one uses experience and one uses psychological techniques (that’s me, don’t be scared, it’s all safe). All three methods work but each requires the customer (i.e. you) to be involved in different ways. That’s the how element. That’s something that every business needs to know in their own capability. As a coach, I will not directly tell you how to do something or give my opinion on your challenge. If you want that, seek a mentor. But, as a coach, I will help you discover for yourself what it is that you need to do, where it is you need to develop, explore ways of doing that and ensure you keep to those development goals as our working relationship continues.

For additional support in identifying your customer, contact Inward Outward Coaching.