Concerns about whether or not products or services are still in alignment with customer needs often arise thanks to downward trending revenue. But that's not always the case — and two clients I’ve worked with are a great example. They came to the topic of offering alignment through another door.
The first organization was experiencing 30% year-over-year growth. They had strong traction in their target markets, a growing list of marquee clients and a best-in-class product. However, the more they measured and discussed customer success, the more they thought their software might work in other vertical markets that they hadn’t originally considered.
We needed to decide whether or not to stick to the original roadmap (familiar, comfortable) or enter uncharted waters with all the risk and uncertainty contained in that move.
The second organization had developed a subscription model product they wanted to launch in a broad consumer market. But during the market research phase we discovered that the challenge and cost of conducting B2C sales, as well as the presence of several well-financed competitors, presented a real uphill battle.
We needed to decide whether to stick with the original go-to-market plan with the hope of chipping away at the competition, or make significant product, branding and sales changes that would allow my client to offer a more differentiated product to a more narrow, niche market.
Both of my clients were facing complex business strategy decisions and had a lot on the line. Whether your organization has been in their exact circumstances or not, I'm sure you've faced equally challenging decisions related to your offering.
So, how do you determine the most effective path to aligning your product or service with your customer?
As the leader of the organization, you likely have conversations with your team about the future viability of your products and/or services. Or, you might be at a critical juncture in the lifecycle of your offerings and already know you need to make changes.
One big challenge I’ve seen for leaders in this situation is figuring out whether or not they need a strategic advisor to establish, guide and lend insight to the process. Why does this happen?
#1. When you’re the owner, founder, leader, it’s supposed to be YOUR JOB to figure these things out. So there could be a perceived sense of failure around bringing someone from the outside in. Even in the case of a non-owner leadership team, the thought often is: If I bring someone from the outside I am literally telling my boss that I can’t do my job.
#2. When you’re so close to it, it's easy to think it's more "handled" than it is. As a result, you simply cannot see where you’re spinning your wheels. So when the question, “should I bring someone in?” arises in your mind, you automatically think “NO! We’ve got this handled. Look how hard we’re working!"
#3. You might also question whether or not you're really going to get value from an outside strategic advisor — especially because we've all heard of strategists who come in and ask the big questions but never really deliver.
Obviously, both of the companies in my examples decided they did need that insight and they engaged my company to provide it. I can tell you that I felt the same level of commitment as they did to making the right strategic decisions. I would not be in business for as long as I have if I wasn't truly committed to that.
But the important difference is that I don't have the same perspective or background as the founders, owners and leadership teams I served. I have that objective perspective plus a history of having seen dozens of organizations in similar situations, that is so crucial to organizations when they're faced with game-changing decisions.
In each case, I applied a highly structured approach to assessing their current offering situation and determining what would be successful in the future.
Only after that assessment, analysis and decision making was complete did we plan out the specifics of the offering and develop the related strategies to take the organization to the next level.
Why is this so important?
Most organizations going through a decision-making process tend to jump quickly into the details and the "how." Sometimes right out of the gate.
Working with an outside advisor with a structured and proven process forces them to stay in the "what" and the "why" much longer. In fact, it forces them to stay there until they're certain.
Working alone, organizations tend to make safe, incremental adjustments. Sometimes this is exactly the right approach. But sometimes it only extends the pain.
This is why the process I took each client through was so invaluable to them in figuring out the best way to evolve their offerings. It brought a disciplined approach that led to greater clarity, certainty and deliberate action.
Here's how to determine what's best for you and your organization:
Assess where, if anywhere, your organization would benefit from outsider objectivity, approaches and processes. Specifically, ask yourself and your team: How long has it been since we've analyzed our offering mix?
If it's been a long time: Are we so close to it that we can't analyze it accurately? What might we be missing?
If you explore your offering frequently, ask: Are we honestly making progress or are we actually spinning our wheels? A sign that you're spinning your wheels is when the same questions are still being asked — even if they've already been answered.
If you are in the midst of a new offering launch or offering evolution ask: What are the specific and most challenging strategic decisions we need to make? Do we have a disciplined and structured approach for making these decisions?
And, most importantly: Do we know that the process we are using to make these decisions is proven?
This is critical because you can create a structured process that actually doesn't help you come to the wisest decision. So remember that structure alone does not equal success. Your process needs to be structured and tested.
Whether strategic decisions are about product/service alignment or anything else related to the growth of your organization, the questions above are very important to ask.
I ask them myself all the time in my own business, and it’s why I have my own outside advisors for certain things. In each case, the value of bringing in an expert has literally been the freedom and clarity to move forward with intention.
In short, it’s allowed me to create meaningful forward motion faster — which is what my business brand is all about, so I better be able to do it!
And those companies I mentioned?
The first decided to stick to their original markets for another year in order to achieve their % growth goals. They decided that size and scale needed to be achieved before they expanded into new markets.
The second struggled to accept the research that suggested a more narrow, focused approach to the market. They may have missed their chance because another competitor saw the value of their market niche and launched an offering.
