Fortune 500 CEO's Advice On Listening to the Customer
How to Build A Billion
By Mark Faust

Fortune 500 CEO Terry Theye built a business from 0 to a billion in 15 years. His company was one of the fastest growing of its time and yet with 1400 employees and all that growth he still had time to:

Terry shared with me several key strategies that would play well into any leader's acceleration of their team's progress:

1. Know who you are and who you aren't
2. Know how to create a challenging and rewarding environment
3. Know your customer, by requiring all leaders to listen to them often
4. Know the secret to your success…

1. Know who you are and who you aren't

Organizations are regularly faced with decisions to expand their focus, make acquisitions, add services/products, etc. For example, Terry's company, TheFutureNow, focused on computer sales and consulting, and one such temptation was to offer repair, the question became should it be handled in-house or outsourced. Remember 15 years ago computers weren't nearly as reliable as they are now, so this was a critical service needed and demanded by customers. Was this service part of who TheFutureNow really was? No, not at their core, to bring it in house added unneeded infrastructure that would have dwindled in need as computers became more reliable. Outsourcing this effort with a fair markup became a critical decision that aided in their growth.

By keeping your focus, you create more opportunities for the highest impact/profit exchanges that make up the sweet spot of your strength. It's not about improving your weaknesses as much as it is about finding more opportunities to do what you do best with better and better customers. How much opportunity does your firm have with its "sweet spot" of services, with its existing customers? That's part of the next strategy…

2. Know your customer, by requiring all leaders to listen to them often

As CEO, Terry met with a minimum of 3 customers a month, the President was required to see 10, VPs were required to see 20. These meetings weren't sales calls but listening calls with a strategic set of questions planned that would elicit strengths, weaknesses and opportunities for growth. The conversations were open ended and not like a typical survey, they were face to face and not written. Customers were encouraged to take the conversation in the direction they wanted vs. strictly following a pat set of questions that may or may not have been of interest to them.

It is an abomination that many CEO's never systematically meet with customers for the sole purpose of listening for input. Are you guilty of this mortal business sin? What is your system for listening to customers? How many customers do you personally survey on average every day/week/month? What percent of your customer base have you spoken to first hand? More importantly what do you ask your customers in these interactions?

Besides selling contacts and the cursory, "How's it going?" which count for nothing in regards to a continuous improvement process, what do you ask? Do you survey their specific disappointments and not just their satisfaction level? Do you ask what they want changed and not just for what they like? Do you really know why they buy you vs. the competition?

At Echelon, we have never conducted a survey for a company of $10 million or greater and not discovered at least seven figures of incremental sales revenue. Entex, a half billion dollar client of ours selling technology hardware and services, had clients confess to us that they would be eager to purchase an additional $100 million in additional services if they were offered by the company. The fact was these services already were offered but clients were unaware of the breadth of services available. All too often sales persons are too quick to run with an order, go to the next prospect and sell wide vs. deep. Worse yet many companies incentivize their teams to sell wide vs. selling deeper into existing accounts and selling additional services that would tighten the bind with the client and be more profitable.

How much untapped potential lies within your current client base? How could you begin to mine it in a new way, unique from the traditional sales contact you are having with your clients?

Three areas to form your questions around are:

3. Know how to create a challenging and rewarding environment

Terry discovered several principles about creating a rewarding environment.

4. Know the secret to your success...your people!!!

Let them know you know it's them that make the organization a success. A leader who takes credit for success is a cancer to growth. A humble leader constantly praising and expressing gratitude at every appropriate opportunity is a fuel of success.

Terry said his only regrets were "not moving even quicker and more aggressively", how could you prevent your self from saying the same? His biggest surprise was the level of success "a billion in 15!" When asked who inspired him most and from where such a strong and powerful business philosophy came from, he gave much of the credit back to people like Tom Watson, Patriarch of IBM, whom he was blessed to learn from directly.

If you would like to read Peter Drucker's article, "Drucker's Five Questions for Organizational Success",