Leadership as a Customer Relations Function

Your customers are sheep. They are seeking leadership in one form or another from their suppliers.  Yet the normative mood that pervades business encounters where profits are on the line is summarized with the saying “the starting point for a customer is to distrust you immediately."  

Distrust is a friction to the relationship that must be overcome before the customer considers entering into a value exchange.  Allaying the perceived risk and creating a beneficial relationship requires leadership to put the customer first and relay the supplier’s essential needs to customers.  

A customer segment of leeches is often found inside a company’s customer base.  These creatures consume more resources than they pay for. To avoid these relationships and avoid later confrontations such as the “firing” of a customer, a supplier can take steps to position their own priorities that must be met in order to have successful relationships as a matter of policy.  Gaining acceptance from the customer to respect the supplier’s priorities may prove difficult if the supplier is in a position of weakness.  Conversely, the supplier should seek to be in a leadership position along a given dimension with customers.  A leading vision from the supplier may take the form of technology, thought, cost or intimacy leadership. 

The essence of personal or firm-wide leadership is built on the unique resources and capabilities of the firm.  At some companies, decades of innovative product development is the basis for a technology leadership position.  At other firms, a strategy of operational excellence to provide the lowest cost offering provides the basis of leadership.  And for new start-ups, often focus is the path forward.  A solution that is tailored for a specific niche can give a leg-up to a new firm.  

It is essential to market a unique position in the marketplace.  This is the essence of brand equity and it lays the groundwork for creating customer relationships.