Most businesses, whatever their size are focused on growth. We want more leads, more fans, readers or subscribers, who will become more customers, resulting in more sales and more profits.

We usually have a plan to get them, which involves cultivating the people we hope will be tomorrow’s customers. And all the while we are doing that we often forget to serve the people who have already showed up—the ones who have said, “we’re here, take us to where we want to go”.

So we move on to the next thing. We innovate and build and create for people who may never arrive, instead of understanding the problems to solve for the people we know.

It turns out that we find tomorrow’s customers by relentlessly focusing on the needs of the customers we have today.

Image by Jerry Wong.