Probably not. You might even go out of your way to make him happy. It’s amazing to me how many people don’t see customers in that light.

I know customer don’t have the commitment to your success that a boss does – but pleasing them is still the only way to keep your paycheck from bouncing. And I don’t believe the customer is always right. Saying they are is demoralizing to your staff. But even when they’re wrong, you don’t need to treat them like they’re jerks.

But shouldn’t everyone in your company go out of their way to make the customer happy? Is it too much to ask that they look you in the eye, speak in clear understandable language, act like if you’re interrupting them, it’s for something more important than what they were doing?

The truth is a lot of this starts at the top in a company – do you hire, train and reward based on these kinds of things? Or do you just expect them to happen?

Fast Company September 2006 has a great issue on this topic. with a great article about Lewis Black – a very funny guy – that you can read on line. I think you’ll have to wait a month to read the whole thing on line.

Takeaways.

• Pleasing customers is the only way to keep your paycheck from bouncing.
• It’s your job to create a culture that understands this.

I read somewhere that many of the clients of Dominatrixes (what is the plural of dominatrix?) are CEOs – people who spend all day calling the shots and answering to no one. They have a psychological need to be bossed around, but obviously need to go outside of work to get that need met. But I don’t care about your private life, or what his name is. I’m talking business reasons you might need a Boss.

Seth Godin has a great post on this topic. It’s geared toward free agents but much on the list applies to entrepreneurs. He summarizes by saying:

“The main thing a boss does, though, is give you the momentum you need to get through the stuff that takes perseverance. The main thing that ends the career of a Free Agent is the lack of a hand pushing on the back, someone handing out assignments and waiting for the deliverables. Who keeps you going when you don’t feel like doing it?”

When Scott Adams (who writes Dilbert) left his job in a cubicle (yes he really had one – for a LOOOONG time), he called it “Boss diversification” because now every customer was a “boss”. Nice way of thinking about it, but the problem is that customers don’t care about your success as much as a boss does. So if you have trouble prioritizing and staying on track, then you need a boss. How do you get one? Here are some ways.

1. Actually get one. Keep ownership of your company, but give up the CEO job. This works for people who really love and excel at one of the critical tasks: Product design or sales or writing code. And you have to have the right CEO and work  hard on that relationship because you’re wearing two hats – because as a sales person, you work for her, but because you’re the owner, she still works for you.

2. Give some real power to your board. Most small companies don’t have a strong board if they have one at all. This is a mistake.

3. Hire a coach from the ICF referral service  [Disclaimer - many years ago I was president of the ICF. Since I left, the organization has grown 10 fold. Coincidence? You decide]

4. Become your own boss. This is the hardest one of all. Pretend you were your own employee. What would you monitor, how often? What tangible results would you expect? Which ones would you demand?

I was asked by the owner of a Micro-ISV (that a very small independent software vendor) how exactly should he spend his time marketing and selling. He knew he should devote more time to it, but he didn’t know what specifically to do.

[UPDATE:  The question came from Neville Franks, who produces Surfulator a great program for capturing and storing web pages]
This is a very common situation with people who are great at building products. The reason it’s common with software products, is that you (and by you I mean some very talented people) can build things nights and weekends without quitting your day job and without investing a whole lot of money. Products that take real funds, often require sales or other interaction with customer earlier in the process. But I digress.

Here’s what I told him.

The question you’re asking [what do I do with my time when I'm marketing and sellling] is like asking “What do I do to get a date?” The answer depends a lot on who you are, who you want to date, and what in fact you mean by a date. A 45 year old, suburban, divorced father of two who wants to develop a relationship with a woman that may lead to marriage will do different things than a 22 year old, single, goth lesbian whose idea of a date is a short, sexual encounter.

Dating is actually a good analogy for business. This is an over simplification but:

A market is a bunch of people who value your product more than they value their money.

Marketing is communicating with them (in every way – from the interface of your product to web sites, ads, etc) so that they become convinced of the value of your product. The result of good marketing is that they will contact you or at least be receptive when you contact them.

What’s important about marketing is knowing that what you do and say and communicate tells a story – whether you like it or not. To be effective it has to be a consistent story (would you buy a Tiffany’s diamond bracelet from a Sam’s club warehouse?) and it has to be consistent with what your market already believes. Some people will never be convinced to buy an American car, and some will never be convinced to buy a foreign one. For more on this, read Seth Godin’s blog for a while.

Sales is contacting them or responding to their contacts with you. The result of sales is actually getting them to exchange money for your product NOW.

So you have to spend time getting to know the people who could benefit from your product. Learn why THEY think it might help them and learn what convinces them of your value.

Just because you had a couple clients pay you to develop something doesn’t mean others in the same demographic would also be willing to pay for it. It’s logical that it would equate, but business, like dating, is not always logical. So get to know these people and learn.

You could start by talking to your current clients about why they felt the value was worth the money. See if they know colleagues or others who you might talk to. Use phone calls, visits as well as blogs and web sites.

Be open to seeing patterns that you didn’t expect. You might find people who “Should” love your stuff don’t. And people you never thought would, actually love it but for all kinds of reasons you never imagined.

When you find a vein, go with it. Make it easy for these people to find you and buy from you.

Sorry to be so vague, but without knowing more details it’s hard to give specifics.

Actually the vagueness, while not a help to him, makes this post useful to a more general audience.

Takeaways:

• Marketing is everything you do (from design to ads) that communicates to your market. The result of good marketing is that the right ones will contact you or at least be receptive when you contact them. And that the people who are not your market won’t.
• Sales is contacting them or responding to their contacts with you. The result of sales is actually getting them to exchange money for your product NOW.
• You have to spend time getting to know the people who could benefit from your product. Learn why THEY think it might help them and learn what convinces them of your value.
• You can’t ask the these questions directly because A) they don’t know and B) until you’ve gotten them to trust you, the won’t tell you the truth. This is what makes the whole process like dating.

Guy Kawasaki has a great post on how to fire someone. I was conflicted by one point that he makes: his dismissal of the idea that you should fire someone quickly. He says you should give them a second chance. Reading it, I realized I think both things are true. How can that be?

This got me thinking about what an employee needs to succeed. I came up with 3 things. Thing Number One is entirely out of your control (and not completely, but generally not under the control of the employee either). Thing Number Two is entirely under your control not that of the employee. Thing Number Three is under both your controls. Details in a minute.

But here’s my take on second chances. When you give a second chance, you must explain the problem and then change something and expect an improvement. At the minimum, you change to increased monitoring, but the things you must change are aspects of Thing Two and Thing Three that are under your control. If you see improvement give another second chance and another and another.

However, as soon as you realize the employees failure is due entirely to Thing Number One – get rid of him or her immediately. It won’t get any better, and you’ll just prolong the agony.

An employee needs three things to succeed

1. The right personality traits. This includes what is commonly called “motivation” and “attitude” but it’s more specific (and less judgmental) than that. Some people are good at multi-tasking, others plow through one thing at a time till it’s done. Some people see the big picture and can’t be bothered with details – others can’t see the forest for the trees. Some people are naturally curious, some are not. Some are fast learners, some are not. By “right personality traits” I mean the right ones for the job. Most people’s traits are right for something – but no one’s are right for everything.

Personality traits are hard enough to discover about yourself, let alone another person in a job interview. But the best way I’ve heard of is to work with a team to come up with a list of traits for each position (this goes beyond the job description). Then in the interview, when you ask questions like “Tell me about your first job?” or “What was your favorite vacation?” you can look for those traits. It’s your job as the boss to determine the kinds of traits needed for each position and do your best to match the person’s traits to the job.

In this article Inc Magazine calls this Behavioral Interviews and gives some tips on how to do it.

And personality traits are almost impossible to change. If someone isn’t a good fit in this area a large company may have other areas to move them to where they fit better. If you don’t, you’d best let them go as quickly as you figure it out. This is the basis for the fire rapidly rule that Guy Kawasaki puts down.

2. Skills & Experience. This stuff is mostly trainable – though no amount of training will make someone a super star. And wisdom can not be had without experience, which takes time. This is the area you give the most second chances in. (Is most second chances an oxymoron?) If you don’t see any improvement, then the cause is likely #1 or #3.

3. The right environment. This is the job of management. The ideal “environment” is one where people have the support and systems they need to be successful. By that I mean, if you hire me to paint a wall, it’s your job to give me the equipment and the paint – or the authority to buy them. If I have to buy them, then you need to allow time for that, and if you tell me to pick the color, you better accept my choice. This is the area that is the biggest problem for small companies. Partly because each manager is wearing so many hats and partly because its a skill they don’t get much training in.

So the first thing I do when an employee isn’t working out, is use that as a mirror to see if I’ve been delinquent in setting up the right environment. Obviously you can’t revamp your whole production line for each new hire. But the more effort you put into designing the right environment, the easier it is to find a good employee to work there. Consider McDonalds. Behind the line, they’ve designed equipment and processes specifically for their menu. As a result, they hire teen agers, retirees, people who can’t speak English, lots of part timers and yet every McDonalds on the planet tastes the same. Can you do that in your facility?

Takeaways:

• Make sure you’re providing the right environment for people to succeed
• Make sure you know the job well enough to determine the personality traits needed
• Get good at Behavioral Interviewing
• Give second chances as long as the traits fit the job and you see improvement
• Fire quickly once you’ve determined neither is true