Much has been written about client focus. We hear about sophisticated clients who will leave if we don't focus on their needs. We hear about the virtues of client loyalty, and the virtues of focus on measurements like client profitability. The key to competitive success is to do a better job serving clients than the next guy. And so on.

But there's a dark side to that theme. The reason to be so client-focused is almost always phrased in terms of the benefits to the seller. And that changes everything.

Client focus, as it is too often practiced in business today, is the focus of a vulture. It is all about the benefit to the firm—not to the client. When client benefits are discussed, they are as discussed as a means to the seller's ends. Yes, we want to serve clients better—but for our sake, not theirs.

Should we be surprised, then, when clients become cynical, send out RFPs, and refer us to third-party buying agents? In our rush to inspect the client brain, we have forgotten that motives matter.

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