Most customer organizations want fewer suppliers. They want suppliers who provide resources and solutions with talent, creativity, and proactive thoughtfulness. This pandemic is loaded with opportunities if you’re asking, “Who’s crying in pain and wants solutions to previously unsolved needs and pain?”

Some of us are old enough  to recognize how “dumbed-down” our great industry has become. Blame it on software, a younger generation that expects to be “spoon-fed” or have someone else on the team pay the early-on price for success from Innovation. Last week I reviewed the effectiveness of a Sample Library with our Plant Managers Peer Group...

How hard do we work to avoid creating and capturing a new opportunity? Are we teaching our front-line key personnel to be alert to opportunities by a public acknowledgment of their accomplishments to their peers? By what means do you plan to accomplish what you need to accomplish?

Individual P & L's were reviewed on a recent CEO Peer Group Call. One member after another compared their 2020 vs. 2019 numbers, including how they got there and what they were working to improve. Almost without exception, one member after another reported lower employment, with equal-to-higher revenues per employee in 2020 vs. 2019.

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?