A Different Approach – Get Feedback
If you can learn how to sell value, showing ROI and highlighting benefits, you will feel less pressure to compete on price alone.
Time for a Market Check – Strategic Conversations
Make a market check. No, not a stock market check—if you check that again today, you’ll either want to curl up in a fetal position in the corner, or go home and make a martini.
Defend Against Outsourcing
Don’t get caught on the losing end of outsourcing, move to higher ground.
The World is Getting Flatter All the Time
If someone can do it cheaper, your clients are going to consider it.
Industry Snapshot – Reacting to Economic Downturn
Tucci used these conversations to get quick market feedback and make significant changes throughout his organization.
A plan for the Unexpected
Beyond speaking with your internal team, you might also consider strategic conversations with key customers and vendors about their views on the economy. Your conversations may or may not prompt a change in your plans for this year—but they will definitely prepare you for whatever may come along.
Your Customers Can Show You the Way
Being stuck was an opportunity that this company exploited to great advantage.
Getting Un-Stuck
Your employees, customers, and prospects are in the market every day, talking to one another, meeting with your competition, and measuring the market players. They know what companies are doing and who’s doing it best. They are great sources of information about industry trends as well as your own firm’s strengths and weaknesses.
Reading List: Mavericks at Work: Why the Most Original Minds in Business Win By Bill Taylor, cofounder of the magazine Fast Company and Polly LaBarre, a longtime editor at Fast Company
Taylor and LaBarre traveled far and wide to profile thirty-two companies that are unique in the way they approach business. These companies appeal to their customers by thinking differently about customer service, product delivery, and the incorporation of open source influences on business.
Reading List: Made to Stick Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die by Chip Heath & Dan Heath
This image tells you a lot about the communication strategies that these brothers and co-authors espouse—that ideas that succeed are easy to understand and memorable.
