We tried to get her to find out what needed to be done, but she got defensive and was difficult to deal with. After about six months of problems, it became too much; we had to find another farrier. When we told her we were switching, she got snotty.

"Don't you want to know why?" we asked her.

"No", she said bluntly, and hung up.

We know that many of Marlon's other customers also switched. Trish has ruined her father's business of over 30 years, which is a tragedy. But another tragedy is that Trish bought business from him and is making payments. They are both going to lose.

There are two lessons here having to do with learning. The first one is this: if you are delivering a flawed or otherwise inferior product, you must learn how to fix it! What do you think will happen if you do a poor job and don't even try to make it right? If she had shown a willingness to "do whatever it takes" to fix problems she was causing, we would have been more patient.

The other lesson is this: if you lose a customer it is imperative that you find out why and learn from situation. If it's because of something that you did, you may be able to fix it and save customer, but even if you can't save this one, you may be able to prevent losing anyone else.

"You are considering Acme to refinish your furniture? They are an excellent choice but they tend to use a lower quality varnish than we do and, although their results are excellent, we have found that our results are equal to theirs and finish lasts longer."

The first step, then, is to identify your competition. It may not always be as obvious as you think. A movie theater, for example, competes with other theaters as well as with other forms of entertainment. After all, people who want to be entertained have many different choices besides seeing a movie. Another example: a gift basket business has to compete with other basket makers as well as other forms of gifts.

After competitors have been identified, you must become familiar with what they do and how they do it, comparing your business to theirs and why someone would want your product or service over theirs. I would be surprised to find a successful auto salesman (key word being "successful") who doesn't know just as much about competing vehicles as he does about his own. That way, he can ask what else his prospect is considering and discuss his products with their weaknesses in mind. And, at same time, he appears to his customer to be knowledgeable, dependable, and helpful!

Know your competition. It's best way to be best.