Would You Be Missed?

I’ve got a question for you:  Would you customers/clients truly notice if you were gone?

Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure they like you, appreciate the work you do for them, and enjoy the times you take them out to lunch or provide other entertainment for them.  But, if you or your company were no longer around, would it make really make a difference?

In my experience (and I’ve worked first hand with more than 1,000 small and mid-market businesses), the answer is “no” about 95% of the time.  If you weren’t there, your customers would just move on the next vendor with no substantive impact.

The companies that aren’t creating substantive impact are most at risk today.  As budgets are being cut, they are being taken, disproportionately, from the “non-indispensible.”

What’s most unfortunate for these at-risk organizations is that there is nothing that is preventing them from becoming indispensable – other than themselves.

Becoming indispensable is hard work.  It takes focus, discipline, and a growth mindset.  Virtually every company has the ability to become indispensable, and the only reason they don’t is that it’s easier not to.  When demand was jumping and the proverbial fish were jumping out of the water, you could afford to take the easier route.  In today’s drought – you can’t!

So, what are you going to do about it?  What can you do to ensure that your best customers will, in fact, notice you if you were gone?