By: Ed McManus, ZBN Contributing Editor

Several years ago, I had dinner in Paris with an elegant gentleman from Company Oliver, a French trading company that has been doing business with the Chinese since it was founded in the 17th century.

He regaled me with stories of their early corporate adventures in China, the great cultural differences they had to work around, and even his negotiations with the Chinese during the troubled days of Chairman Mao's dreaded "Red Guards."

"The Chinese negotiators were eminently practical men.  They would receive an evening update on the latest favored actions, sayings, and dress codes in Peking.  The next day they would come to the table appropriately dressed and using the politically correct government buzzwords.  They were still however, the same skilled negotiators, and went for the best possible deal."

The story that stayed with me longest was when the Chinese began exporting their beautiful porcelain vases and bowls to the western market.  They studied the market and realized that, for their money, the Westerners appreciated value, quality and novelty.  So, they gave them all three.  Their beautiful pottery was packed in loose tea, and the shipping crates were actually carved and decorated teak storage chests.  It was one of the few times in history that the customer could use, and profit, from every aspect of the transaction:  They received the pottery, the packing material was a large supply of Chinese tea to be used or sold, and the shipping crate was a beautifully carved and decorated storage chest.

The point: the early Chinese merchants did their homework.  They asked themselves: What does the customer really want?  They put that concept in the middle of their business philosophy.

Are we doing that today?  Can we give our customers that extra bit of attention and value for them to believe we understand and really care about what they want?  We talk the talk while our automated phone systems tell the customer how important his telephone call is to us as he’s on endless hold.  What about our action?

Maybe we can research and think as those early Chinese merchants did. We can talk with our clients and understand more about their needs and desires.  Maybe we can develop a whole new approach to set us apart from the thundering herd of competitors trying to get the same business.  Maybe we can develop a 21^st century equivalent to the Chinese porcelain shipment solution.

There was an old sales management saw that came out of IBM in the 1970s.  They called it the Nine Word Job Description:  "Make your numbers; grow your people; delight your customers."  Let us give attention to the “delight your customers” portion of that maxim.