If You Always Do What You’ve Always Done…

You will always get what you always got, or so the saying goes, but I suspect that today you probably won’t even get (the results) you always got, because somebody else will. We live in days of unprecedented change. In almost every way things are changing at a terrifying rate on all sorts of fronts. The ability to be able to move, change and adapt are premium, must have skills. Knowing not just how to survive but to prosper is a definite must have. We are in times of relentless competition from all directions. Customers have almost limitless choices; they can choose you, or they can choose to do nothing at all; they can choose your local competitor, they can choose to transact with someone miles away, and often they can choose to transact with a machine. Until recently my accounts were processed, very efficiently, and overnight, in India so my local accountant lost out to competition half a world away, how different is that to just a few short years ago? Ask yourself how well you understand the needs of your customer today? Be sure that they will have changed too. How well do you cater for those needs? Are you listening to him? Do you actually have a mechanism to communicate or will you find out only when he has voted with his feet? Is your relationship simply transactional, or do you go out of your way to build a well founded relationship which provides increasing value, in your customer’s eyes?

Action exercise.

Take some time to work out the three biggest “pains” your prospects and clients face right now. How adequate are your solutions right now? Then look at how they might be changing and how you can enhance the value that you provide in the future. Then do it.