Last week I was reminded about the importance of remembering exactly who your customer is. I've had a long-term job where I provide support to a key employee who works for a client of mine. I meet with the key employee for a couple of hours every week, and we work closely together on a variety of projects. While I spend a lot of time with this employee, I only meet with my actual client once every couple of months. The problem was that because I was spending far more time with the key employee, I had forgotten exactly who I was working for. I was serving the employee instead of the client. The result? My client reminded me -- not too subtly -- who was approving my invoices, and who I needed to please.

Fortunately, I keep my client radar set to high at all times, and I quickly picked up the message. I completely revamped my approach to the project, spending less time with the key employee and more time working behind the scenes on work that my client wants done.

Two of the questions in Peter Drucker's book The Five Most Important Questions You Will Ever Ask About Your Organization (a book I was honored to help put together for Jossey-Bass a couple of years ago) are these: Who is the customer? and What does the customer value? While most of us know who our customers are, fewer of us know exactly what our customers value. My advice is to keep your eye on the prize -- focus constantly on identifying your best customers, and then providing them with the products and services THEY want, not what you think they SHOULD want. As marketing expert Philip Kotler says, "Our business is not to casually please everyone, but to deeply please our target customers."

Coincidentally, that's the exact lesson I learned from my client last week.