The Critical Importance of Your Who
By Douglas G. Davidoff
Founder & CEO
Imagine Business Development

The Critical Importance of Your "Who"

I get asked all of the time, "what is the most important focus for a business?"

The answer, for me at least, is easy and simple.  The single, most important factor in success for a business is a clear definition of who your customer is.  I live by the rule:  you can never know and understand your customer well enough.

If you're completely clear on who your customer is, what makes them tick, and how they think - you can create a product or service that resonates and stands out to them.  My friend and coach Dan Sullivan, founder of The Strategic Coach, calls it DOS - dangers, opportunities and strengths. 

As he will attest, great things happen when businesses filter everything they do through the prism of their customer's DOS.  And, virtually without fail, when a company fails to stay within the alignment of that DOS the company struggles, stalls or fails.

While I'm a big fan of Simon Sinek's philosophy that people don't buy what you do, they buy why you do it (if you're unfamiliar with this concept - you must watch this video); I can't help but think that he's missing the absolute core for success - who are you doing it for?

I've rarely had someone disagree with me that focusing on your "who" is critical.  Yet despite this agreement, only about 5% of companies I come across spend adequate time on their customers.  Those that do, enjoy disproportionate rewards than those that don't.

Think about this, what do these companies have in common: Apple, FedEx, Starbucks and Netflix (the latter two in their hay day)?  They all experienced fast growth, tremendous profit and were all maniacally focused on who their customer is - and isn't.  In the case of Starbucks and Netflix, their troubles began when they fell out of alignment with their who.

It's critical that you focus—no strike that—that you hyper-focus on:

1.  Who your client is, and
2. The compelling problems that they have that you solve.

I find that salespeople and executives are uncomfortable making such a commitment for fear that if they were to focus on such a singular description, then they could miss opportunities, and that (especially in difficult economic times) missing opportunities is deadly.

The reality is that the exact opposite is true.  The greater the focus, the less likely you'll miss opportunities; and the less the focus, the more likely.

As you begin (or complete) your 2012 planning, commit to spend some extra time defining your who.  If you'd like some help, you can download our customer profile workbook here.