In my previous article, I shared stories of three companies with high business clarity. In this article, I am sharing three stories of companies I have worked with to show the impact of weak business clarity. To preserve confidentiality, I have not included details about their market or a description of their product or service.
Not keeping your eyes on the ball
With the first client story, after several days of prospecting, I discovered that many prospects had already purchased a similar solution from a competitor. In this market, people rarely change their tools. Some prospects told me they had used the competitor’s tool while in university, so because they were familiar with it, they bought it while working when they were employed.
My client was one of the first in the market offering the technology, but they lost their focus and momentum and allowed their competitors to leapfrog them. I have learned that it is critical to keep asking myself, “Am I still providing a service that will deliver an excellent return on investment, or are competitors “eating my lunch”? I must keep my eyes on the ball every month, week, and day.
Just because it is a brilliant idea doesn’t mean it will sell!
In my second story, I served a company offering a highly specialized service with cutting-edge expertise. The technology originated in universities but failed to be adopted by industry because the methodology was too academic, providing results that were hard to analyze and implement. My client identified the top seven parameters that mattered when analyzing processes with this technology. Brilliant!
My client had excellent business clarity. They knew the ideal client’s profile and the impact their service could provide and had their case studies to prove it. Unfortunately, they hadn’t analyzed the market thoroughly enough to discover
- The market was averse to accepting it because they didn’t believe in the technology
- or were clever and felt they could do it themselves.
- Also, the size of the market was shrinking dramatically.
I learned that even a little market analysis can prevent much pain. My client took their expertise to serve an employer, which was a win-win.
When skills aren’t transferrable
My final story is about a prominent and profitable service provider in one niche. They also had clear business clarity in this niche, knowing the client’s needs perfectly and what expertise needed to be delivered.
They asked me to help them find opportunities for this service in other markets. Unfortunately, I had only a vague idea of who could use this service in different markets, though I was given a target niche to explore. After a year, we didn’t find any opportunities. After discussing the issue with experts outside my client’s company, I was told the service wouldn’t be cost-effective in the target market.
I learned that just because you have business clarity in one niche and are financially successful, it isn’t always a “transferable skill.”
Summary
Wrapping up my two-part article about business clarity, I hope you have learned from my six stories about the value of having business clarity and the heartbreak you will face when it is lacking!