The Manager's Handbook

21Walk Behind the Tractor

Spend a lot of time talking to customers face‐to‐face. You'd be amazed how many companies don't listen to their customers.

—H. Ross Perot, founder, Electronic Data Systems

My father had a modest‐sized business manufacturing farm equipment. He never sold anything directly to a farmer because like cars, farm equipment is sold through a dealer network. Growing up I never set one foot inside the offices of any of those dealers. Instead, on the weekend I'd walk the fields with my dad. With a tape recorder in his hand and walking behind a tractor, my dad would listen to the farmer describe how the harvester he'd bought performed in thick mud after a rain. The farmer was not the customer, but my dad understood the difference between the customer and the end user, and taught me the importance of walking behind the tractor.

Decades later, I cofounded what would become one of the nation's largest transporter of nonhazardous liquid waste. But along the way I forgot to walk behind the tractor. Most municipalities require restaurants to install traps to reduce the amount of oil and grease discharged into the public sewer system. Periodically those traps must be emptied, and we decided to get into that line of business.

For our existing business, we maintained a fleet of modern trucks that we kept clean and shiny. Our drivers wore fresh uniforms every day. We processed our own waste, so we had a cost advantage over the competition. We promoted those same features ...