Feb 02 09
Bringing Value Now
By Renn Vara
Many companies like ours are scrambling right now. It’s easy to understand why. Large corporations, which are our bread and butter, are seriously cutting staff and budgets. The result is the loss of dependable jobs and projects in the foreseeable future. For those of us who weathered the dotcom fallout, we know what’s coming. Instead of panicking, we know the key to surviving and thriving is to provide value to our longtime customers right now.
Here’s my short list:
>> It sounds counter intuitive, but don’t push your services or products. Instead ask questions and then listen intently. Find out what their pain points are, and determine if your products and services can adjust to help them. It not, don’t waste their time.
>> Find efficiencies in your products and services and pass on the savings to your customers. For example, find ways to leverage payroll overhead versus passing on marked up subcontractor expenses.
>> Make your team acutely aware that working smart and fast and minimizing mistakes is an imperative. It always is but particularly now. Mistakes are not acceptable during times like these.
>> Train your team to look for opportunities to provide value above and beyond the nuts and bolts of doing “the job.” And when doing this, don’t nickel and dime your customer(s). Instead provide the extras at no extra cost whenever possible.
>> Strategically invest in your customer when possible. At times this means doing a project for free if you and they determine that your product or service is essential to their success right now. Assuming your relationship is strong enough they’ll appreciate the “gift” and pay it back when times get better.
You get the idea. This is a time for friends to help each other. And your customers have been a great friend to your bottom line. Time to step it up and help them get through this downturn. I know it’s hard to focus on others when you have to lay people off, but it’s the right thing to do. And it’s good for business. We know, because it’s how we made it through the dotcom bust the last time. Oh, and turn off the news channels. They’ll only depress you.
