So it’s now tough and getting tougher. Spring roots are moot yet a Winter of discontent might yet be grumbling. The macro is for others to wring hands over – we have to respond to conditions as we find them. For some time now I have been working with directors to devise tactics in repsonse to the tough times. Here I suggest an overall strategic view………….

Boards – get focused on two inter-related things, they are: Value and Values.

Value in terms of what you are “worth” in marketplace terms, value in products and services, value in terms of the balance sheet and value analysis rather than cost analysis.

Values in terms of what you stand for or what you want to be renowned for. This applies for customers and marketplaces and for your people.

These two inter-related points are then applied in Financial Disciplines, Marketplace Offerings, Customer Relationships and Leadership and Culture.

How to apply these is what I have been engaged on of late across the boardrooms I work in. Green shoots and developments are happening. Talk to me about the specifics for your business and let’s get focused, get out there and get on with it. Spring can’t come quickly enough.

Last night’s Scottish Plant Owners Dinner provided me with a forum to share my views. A great bunch of resilient, doughty fighters against the forces of darkness (the Banks) as they are, they are out there at the sharp(est) end of industry – selling assets and people to produce and create, with a good number looking for respite or at the very least “give us a break!” Maybe that’s why their secretary Steven Mulholland of MPS introduced me saying that I would talk about coming out of the recession and the shape of the winter. Don’t worry Steven I enjoyed the talk aound the table and it won’t be too long until the longest night is over!

So if you are riding this out, surviving and on the odd sunshine filled day feeling that you may be seeing the dawn of some real new opportunities then you may be in a great position to find more customers and fill the gap that may have appeared. That is you may if the nature of buying hasn’t been radically shaken up or in fact new rules written. Perhaps there is greater conservatism in the buying process, more concern for the small print and getting the contract right.

Buying on price certainly prevails in a good number of scenarios and the pressure is on to offer value and be clear on that. Beyond that how do we win over the new customer or in fact court the previously somnolent one? The  offer of the latest, newest, fastest, would seem to hold less apppeal. The product or the service itself is becoming or is a “given”. What else will tilt the balance?

 TRUST.

“OK so the product service sounds about right for the price but who are these guys? What have they done before? What management resource are they putting into this? Who have they worked for? Who owns them?”

A series of trust questions are now elbowing into the sales and buying negotiation. Underlying this are a set of three elements of trust

1. Trusting competetence

2. Trusting reliabilty

3. Trusting their motives

The intention of all is not under question more an insidious worry about how they will deliver. Even in good times a ton of business is lost not because of fundamentals of business intention but by confidence and trust being lost by the neglect of the little things, the build up of small failures of delivery or the lack of caring response.

One major antidote that is working for clients is the use of “Customer Expectation” statements. These are a set of fundamentals for presentation and discussion with customers and a set of live or die conditions for managing your company’s delivery. As clients and I have been finding so few companies have such things and there is good news – this is a competitive opportunity and those who have been working with this are very well positioned to “Compete on Service”. Contact me to find out more about how to make this happen.