Think About It… the e-book version

by Todd Youngblood

Do you ever get this uneasy feeling about the “solutions” you bring to the marketplace? That maybe they really aren’t all that special or different any more? I mean, everybody claims to offer, “not just products and services, but solutions!” Isn’t it possible (or even likely) that your customers can’t distinguish between your solution and your competitor’s solution?

Face facts. You don’t have a single competitor clueless enough to not at least claim to offer “solutions” to customer problems. A few might not have the wherewithal to actually deliver, …but they probably can.

The notion of creating solutions has been around for decades. The survivors have figured out how to do it. Adding application know-how and other value-add to core products and services is simply no longer a differentiator. Since everybody else offers the same sort of product/service packaging, buyers still have you cornered into the lower price game.

So now what?

As always, the answer lies in being both innovative and competent enough to deliver on those new, creative ideas. Easier said than done. Especially when you have already spent the last several years racking your brains to come up with something new and different. Maybe its’ time to get a little more creative about extending an approach that we know works.

Think through your traditional sources of innovation and competence. Obviously, others within your own company are first on the list; closely followed by your suppliers, whose own self-interest is served by helping you perform better. Next come customers. Including them is what enabled us to graduate from providing commodities, to differentiated products and services to total solutions to begin with! Think about all this in the context of the diagram below.

The more people you get involved in generating ideas, the more ideas you get. A larger pool of talent provides more sources of the right and best talent to implement those ideas. Every time you stretch out a bit further on either axis, you become a bit more valuable in the eyes of your customers.

Now stretch a bit further. Think about including “adjunct partners” in the quest for more differentiation and value. Adjunct partners are other individuals or organizations that have interests in common with your customers. Like, for example, their other suppliers, suppliers of those suppliers, your other customers, your customers’ customers, maybe even your competitors. Of course it’s conceivable that integrating their ideas and capabilities with your ideas and capabilities can result in a whole host of new and more compelling value propositions.

Then take it a step further and create a “community” of all these entities. Become the center, the focal point, the nexus of all this thinking and discussion about innovation and sources of knowledge and competence. Become the first place to check for where else to go and what else to do. Anybody can come up with a solution. Become the one who can create an “Environment” that will ensure success.

How? Use the classic tools. Really work those industry associations, user groups and contact lists with innovation specifically in mind. If you haven’t already done so, create user groups and advisory councils of your current customers. Use the new tools. Google everything – every problem, every issue, every idea. Sign up for and read blogs regularly. Write your own blog. Go take a look at what Innocentive is doing at www.innocentive.com and copy them. (WOW!) …or at least set up a forum for idea exchange on your web site.

Selling solutions just ain’t gonna’ cut it any more. Become “The Source” – that special individual who will always point to …or create… that new environment needed to solve any problem.