success - Turbo Coach, achieve breakthroughs - Brian Tracy

Know Your Customers
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characteristics of your very best customers. Sort all your customers
according to how they stack up against the best performers.
You should be able to see quickly who your highestvalue
customers are. Today, many companies follow this procedure
in order to focus more and more of their time and
attention on their highest-value customers and on acquiring
more customers like them. At the same time, they spend less
and less time on their lower-value customers. In many cases,
they encourage their lower-value customers to do business
with other companies.
The story of a successful entrepreneur we know illustrates
this concept. He recently applied this sorting process
to his customer base. He determined that a small segment
(20 percent) of his customers contributed a very large share
(80 percent) of his sales volume and an equally large share
(80 percent) of his profits. His response to this was to ‘‘fire’’
the 80 percent of his lower-value customers that contributed
20 percent or less of his revenues. He identified other companies
in his industry that he felt could service them better and
handed off those customers, one by one. He was then free to
concentrate all his attention and energy on his higher-value
customers. Within one year, his business and his personal income
doubled. Would this strategy work for you?
Application Exercise
1. Who are your most important internal customers?
2. What are the special requirements of your internal
customers?