We are now approaching the annual “Snooker The Boss” season in the middle of Covid-19. It’s budget time for next year. What are we going to sell next year, by quarter, and by a customer? Is there a sense of urgency in your business development team in their efforts and decisions?

Some businesses need to improve on how to develop and better serve their customers. More than any other year in memory, this year represents a world that is changing radically and quickly. The old world we used to recognize, “Do you have something you need a quote on?” and “Quote and Hope,” represent a formula for inevitable disaster.

Whether you recognize it or not, your company is a “Learning Lab” re. your customers' needs, priorities, and ambitions. Before giving a supplier an invitation, your customer first wants to know if that supplier is Trustworthy and does that supplier Really Care?

When we bring forward services that make us important to our target customer, doesn’t that performance provide us with opportunities to do more for them? Customers in all directions are screaming in pain for assistance. Do we hear them, do we know their sources of pain, their needs, and their ambitions?

Around me, even quietly within me, there are occasional whimpers of frustration, grief, and almost unimaginable sense of loss. Then I turn and start to count…. what I do have to work with. Our heritage is one of incredible, often unbelievable achievements and courage often in the face of scary threats challenges and opportunities.

In today’s environment, this new resource can separate your organization from your competition  while serving current and new customers in a significant trajectory. What else do you have going for you at his time that would get your customers attention?

The human spirit thrives on stimulation, healthy change, fresh air, outdoor scenery, and activities that reduce stress. A few organizations in our great industry are already moving to support their customers’ (and employees) needs, including morale and support, to keep their revenue streams coming.

About 53% of people working remotely do company business on personal laptops, which often lack safeguards that employers provide, such as firewalls and antivirus software. Even worse, 29% of remote workers said they let kids and other family members use their work laptops for online shopping and gaming.

Most top-performing professionals know that if they can obtain a personal audience with their target prospect, they’re half-way home to success. We can hide behind our email screens, or we can develop scenarios that encourage and patiently invite the other party to see us and understand us.  

"Legacy Thinking" Is Killing Us…..Slowly…..Surely I do not understand how our great industry can invest billions into new technologies and equipment and ignore the need to teach our business development professionals and customers how to grow a customer's business through proper Databases and Print.