I was talking with Joe Corini, of CMA, the other day about the current state of the economy and business in general and he said “you know, Jack, no matter how things have changed or what is happening with the economy, it still begins with the sale! Sale first, then delivery, followed by servicing the client – but it IS harder to get that sale.”
At the time, this comment hit home and certainly describes what we are facing today. However, the brilliance of the comment did not strike me until the next day. A common topic today is – what are your doing differently because of the business climate? – and there is much being said about new and creative approaches. With all this attention on how we must change, are we are missing the obvious…and are we missing sales as a result?
Creativity and innovation are important and have always been the fuel for change: new design; greater functionality; simpler operation; shorter process duration – for example. But underlying what’s new is a firm and strong foundation – the unchanging core of the business process. The fundamentals of - ‘nothing happens until you make the sale,’ which then is followed by delivering what has been promised (or even exceeding it), and servicing the client – this has NOT changed nor has it diminished in importance.
We spend so much time on new ways of getting the word out through new media and writing blogs or tweets, among the many things we can now use as tools, that we may have missed the obvious truth that the underlying elements in the simplest form remain virtually unchanged and constant. Fancy, techie, glitzy, and cool are great, but nothing happens until the sale…sell > deliver > service.
Joe nailed it that day – no matter what the changes – it all begins with the sale AND it takes more work to get the sale. The conversations about change are as additions to, rather than instead of, what we have always been doing. Thanks, Joe!
How does that strike you?
Next program is Championship Leadership in Resource Constrained Markets on September 16th. Details at http://championshipleadership.eventbrite.com/
The grid of inquiry
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Expertise and firmly held beliefs don’t always go together. Here’s a simple
XY grid to help us choose where to sit at whatever table we’re invited to:
Plen...
2 comments:
I believe there is a hesitancy to commit. Turns out the best strategy might be converting to free cash and waiting for a better opportunity. That is short term thinking AND it has been paying off.
Thanks, Dick.
There is a definite reluctance, but also a possible loss of focus and hope for some magic to compensate for the reluctant buyers and for our own constrained resources.
The fundamentals message does point up that this is really unchanged and stable.
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