The First Step in the Change Process

“`What is value to the customer?’ may be the most important question, yet the one least often asked.” — Peter Drucker

In my opinion, the most successful financial firms view sales as a process and have adopted a systematic approach to improvement. The first step in any process improvement is to identify how the customer defines value. The reason? The customer’s definition of value changes frequently. What was important yesterday may not be important today. Any potential process change must be held against the litmus test of “What does it mean to the customer?” Will the “improvement” make the customer’s life easier or harder?