At the heart of the success or failure of every business is the connection it creates with a customer. Visually. Emotionally. Functionally. Financially.

At the heart of that connection is your Client Fulfillment System.

What is Client Fulfillment?

It's the way you do what you do. It's the way you differentiate yourself from everyone else. It's the way you stand out, both in the mind and the heart of your customer that turns that customer--somebody who buys from you once--into a client--someone who buys from you again and again.

The truth is, none of us can afford a customer. They're just too expensive to get.

Every single one of us is looking for clients. Because the return on investment increases each and every time they buy another 'thing' from you - provided of course you're selling that 'thing' at a profit. But that's another conversation we'll have at another time.

Client Fulfillment is something very simple to understand, and very, very difficult to do with any consistency. And yet, when done well, it is very obvious why it works.

Consider Federal Express' offer to track your package. To let you know exactly where it is at any time. Do you really need to know where it is at any time? Of course not. But isn't it great to know that because Federal Express is committed to the integrity of their promise to you, you can? Isn't it reassuring to know that they know where your package is? And that they absolutely-positively will deliver it exactly when and where they promised? And doesn't it make you feel just great to see the Federal Express Guy on the job, in his predictable uniform, in his predictable truck, ready and eager to keep his company's promise?

What's your version of the Federal Express Experience?

What are you going to do that will turn your every customer into a loving and faithful client?

What spin are you going to put on the words you use, the process you employ, the way your people look, act, communicate, deliver?

What's your turnkey innovation that will stun your customer's sensibilities, that will say Whoa! to your customer's habitual way of responding, that will astonish even the most cynical customer into coming back to see if you can reproduce that original experience, to discover whether or not that first experience was just a fluke?

Where's the magic? Where's the mystery? Where's the 'profound' in what you do?

Find it, my friend, and let me know when you do. I'm all ears.

Michael Gerber is chairman and founder of E-Myth Worldwide. He reminds you that the opportunity is to go to work ON your life not IN it, and in the process to experience the sweet, radiant, extraordinary joy of the fully-lived moment. His Web site is www.emyth.com.