<\/p>\n
Gone are the bells and the whistles.\u00a0 Gone is the sugar-frosting\u2026 even that lovely cherry on the top.\u00a0 Those are the things that only appeal when your organization\u2019s core<\/em> is not under threat\u2026 because addressing that critical core of the business is boring, it\u2019s stressful, and it was not great for your career to expose what was truly dysfunctional in your organization. \u00a0Now all the frilly paraphernalia has been cast aside, and we have no choice but to focus 100% on that core.<\/p>\n Why we didn\u2019t address the core and focused on nice-to-haves<\/span><\/p>\n Having to deal with critical issues like security, making processes flow and work better, helping train staff to stop doing things the same way they have for 30 years, addressing why your service providers never deliver any of the stuff they claim they do on their PPT slides, asking difficult questions why your firm spent millions on software they simply failed to\u00a0deploy\u2026 those were the things we knew deep down we needed to do, but most the folks around us just didn\u2019t care, and would have thrown us under the bus if we’d agitated for real change<\/em>.\u00a0 So we did the safe<\/em> thing\u2026 pushed initiatives that promised some incredible future value as long as we threw around some cash and made everyone look good.\u00a0 Plus, the steak dinners with decanted wine always helped\u2026 After a while, we just convinced ourselves what we were doing was critical even if our firm didn\u2019t really have to have<\/em> any of it.<\/p>\n Addressing the core of your business is the only thing to save yourself… and your business<\/span><\/p>\n We have absolutely zero choice but to address these two actions to survive and win our in today’s environment:<\/p>\n The Bottom-line:\u00a0 Identifying your customers\u2019 have-to-haves is the only path to follow in this market, but only once they know what they are!<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n It\u2019s one thing to identify what our current customers (or prospective customers) have to buy from us, but it\u2019s another to make sure we are not wasting our valuable time and resources on those who haven\u2019t yet worked out their plan to survive this market.\u00a0 There are still many organizations out there who are still scrambling to fathom what is going on, holding out some hope for a magical imminent V-shaped bounce-back.\u00a0 As lovely as that prospect is, holding out for that miracle will likely end in tears.\u00a0 What\u2019s more, you are also a terrible customer, as your firm is too nervous to invest in anything serious.\u00a0<\/p>\n So find your bottom, find your chink of light, then identify your customers who simply know<\/em> they have to buy what you are selling.\u00a0 It really is that simple.<\/p>\n In Part II we\u2019ll get into what customers have-to-have.\u00a0 You know you have to read it =)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Gone are the bells and the whistles.\u00a0 Gone is the sugar-frosting\u2026 even that lovely cherry on the top.\u00a0 Those are…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2473,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51,873,852,833],"tags":[303],"ppma_author":[19],"yoast_head":"\n\n