Successful entrepreneurs know the importance of following the money. When their customers ask for something, these entrepreneurs find a way to supply their customers with whatever they want. That’s what following the money is all about—go where the money leads. After all, you’re in business to make a profit.

Successful businesses continue to expand their offerings. They continue to follow the money. Since it’s easiest to sell to your top customers—the hyper-responsive ones—that should be your focus as you follow the money.

Become intimately familiar with his or her customer list. To begin with, you should not only identify your top 20 percent, you should also segment your list by identifying the top 10 percent, top 5 percent, and even your top 2 percent.

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Who are you and what do you stand for?

Branding. We’re all exposed to continuous advertising. Yes, it’s now continuous (rather than “continual”) because it’s impossible to escape. You know it. I know it. It’s everywhere. And the businesses that are most effective are the ones that have established their brands. Brands are critical to recognition, and recognition is critical to successful advertising.

There has to be something that sets you apart from your competition. Who are you? What is your USP (unique selling proposition)? What’s your field of expertise? When people mention your name, what’s the first thing they associate with it? No matter what type of business you have, figure out what sets you apart and establishes you as the expert, the go-to person of influence. What do you offer that your competitors don’t? Review your strengths. Review your competitors’ weaknesses. By doing so,

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Make it easy for your customers to do business with you. This concept is so important to developing and building stronger customer relationships that I’m going to focus just on that for a moment.

As a customer, have you ever walked into a place and heard the phrase “That’s our policy?” Those words are like a slap in the face with a cold, dead fish. I’m certain you don’t like hearing it, and I certainly didn’t appreciate that approach to my seemingly altered check at the bank. Well, neither do your customers! Even if you fill a very unique niche with your product or service, if you stand on policy or your terms and conditions at every turn, customers will figure out how to get what they need from someone else.

Have you ever tried to glue something, only to find that the glue was actually stronger than what you applied it to, so the end result was another break?

The same thing can happen when trying to stick like glue to your customers. If your foundation isn’t very strong, the best glue in the world won’t help you.

Your foundation is the relationship you have with your customers. It is your level of customer service—the way your business treats and values customers.

In order to succeed in any business, excellent customer service is paramount. I’ve always stood on the principle that you can never go too far with customer service.

Bill Glazer, internationally recognized marketing expert and president of Glazer Kennedy Insider’s Circle^TM, uses the phrase, “Inspect what you expect.” By that, he means that you should honestly evaluate how your company is addressing your customers.

How? There are two excellent ways.

1)  You can pose as a customer, or

2)  You can have someone play that role on your behalf—this is known as mystery shopping