Who Are the Clients?

DR. ICHAK ADIZES explores the needs of customers, clients, shareholders, and management, and raises a few realistic questions that will bring focus and purpose to any organization.

- DR. ICHAK ADIZES

In order to be healthy, you have to be effective. In order to be effective, the system works, the system produces what it needs to produce. But in order to be effective, you have to identify the clients you are serving. Who are the clients? Clients are not necessarily those who consume the product or the service. They are customers. Clients are the ones who decide to buy. Who decides? That is your client.

When my kids were young, I used to take them every Sunday for brunch. I liked to go to a restaurant called Love because they had baked beans, which I liked. Guess where we went? McDonald’s. Who decided? The kids. So who are the clients of McDonald’s? I was the one carrying the wallet. That’s why McDonald’s is very good at marketing. It is oriented to the kids. They promote to the kids. They have playgrounds for the kids in front of the restaurant. The menu focuses on the kids.

Who decides is the client.

If you are a real estate developer in a developed country like the United States, go to New York. Look at their apartments. The kitchens are very small. What’s going on? People eat out. Who is the client? The wife. That’s who decides what to buy. So, when you ask yourself, I want to be effective, I want my company to be effective, focus on who decides. In the B2B business, there are multiple people who decide. The finance people, any one of them can veto. Now you have to look at all the different needs and develop a separate pitch for each one of them.