By Mark Robilliard, Co-founder & CEO Americas Color Accounting, and Gary Peacock, Head of Innovation & Research Gordian Business, and Stephen Kozicki, Principal Gordian Business
Published in Velocity Magazine, Vol 19. Issue 3 2017.

Moving from a customer focus to a customer-results focus requires a mindshift in your team. Results make all the difference, first to your customer and then to you. When your customers see your organisation trying to help them grow their business - with no direct benefit to you - then this transforms their relationship with you. Instead of seeing you as a cost, they see you as a contributor - in some cases an authentic partner.

If you want to make your relationships with your customers even more 'sticky' - competitor-proof and price-defendable - then you need to make them broader, deeper and more valuable... to your customers. And for that, you must understand their business and their measures of financial success.

Improving your financial smarts can help you move from seeing finance as painful (and probably avoiding financial discussions) to seeing it as a powerful tool. Financial smarts can help you deliver better financial results for your customer, better results for your organisation and better results for you.