The Band of Builders at BUILT TO LEAD has been thinking a lot lately about productive actions WE can take now to will help our clients, families, and friends weather the economic cloudburst we’re under.
Chet kicked us off last week about TAKING ACTION as a way to regain focus, enCOURAGE your people, and gain vital knowledge NOW while your competitors are frozen in fear and loathing.
Here’s another thought about one of THE most productive actions you can take right now, even while demand is slack and finances may suck:
COLLABORATE with YOUR customers about how to better serve THEIRS.
Why is this such a productive idea? Let me count the ways:
1. Your initiative will create for your customers all the benefits that ACTION creates for you (see paragraph 2 above).
2. The investigation of their customers’ unmet needs is addressing their number one problem right now. You won’t be wasting their time, or yours.
3. They’ll appreciate the attention, gain respect for you, trust you more, and probably end up liking you more. That can’t hurt when things turn around.
4. This type of collaboration is inherently “close work”–meaning your folks and theirs are likely to develop the kind of deep relationships that are born of adversity. That certainly can’t hurt, either.
5. Because YOU’LL be doing it, and your competitors presumably won’t be, you will gain competitive advantage in the knowledge you uncover and solutions you come up with.
6. The action will increase your RELEVANCE for your customers and DIFFERENTIATION from competitors–both foundations of enduring preference for your brand.
Okay, that’s a decent six-pack of benefits. How do you do it?
This deserves more than a single blog post, but here’s the process distilled into one simple concept. Don’t miss this. This is HUGE:
OBSERVE your customers’ customers GETTING JOBS DONE with the stuff you ship.
SAY WHAT? An example may help: Does the guy who goes to Home Depot for a hand-held power drill go there because he needs a drill, or because he needs a hole?
Right. He needs a hole. That’s a big part of the job he is trying to get done. He’s “hiring” the drill to get that job done.
If you help your customer understand the hassles their customers endure when they are trying to accomplish something that involves hiring your products and services, you both will see what to do next–make it EASIER!
So, what are you waiting for? Pick up that phone and call your best customers. Set it up. While you’re at it, set up a collaboration site on the web for your companies…
What have you got to lose?
Nothing, right?
Unless one of your competitors calls first.
Don’t wait. There’s a job to be done.
BUILT TO LEAD 