I’ve been involved in a fascinating conversation with Greg Michaels. He wrote a great article, Regarding The “Challenger Customer.” Taking “Good Enough” Away From The Sales Table. He piqued my interest and we’ve been communicating and debating about it for days.
We all, our customers and we “settle.” Whether we get so busy, are blind, arrogant, complacent, or just tired, we tend to settle. We deal with frustrations, ultimately becoming blind to them.
In reality, Good Enough is devastating. Good Enough focuses us on the past and the present.
What worked brilliantly (March 08, 2016), is OK today, but what about tomorrow?
One thing we know for our customers and for our own organizations is change is constant. Our customers’ customers are changing, which drives the need for our customers to respond. What is good enough for today, will be unacceptable tomorrow. Customer expectations will change, competitive offerings will change. Market requirements change.
As we prospect our customers, we discover they aren’t unhappy, yet they aren’t happy. They’ve settled for things the way they are–it’s good enough. They struggle to get things done. They become accustomed or even comfortable with the current state.
Some may be a little unhappy, but not enough to disrupt what they are doing to change.
We may try to disrupt them, they respond, “Our current solution is good enough,” “Our current supplier is good enough.”
Yet, according to Gallup, 71% of B2B customers are either indifferent or actively disengaged with their current solutions and vendors.
This is a good news/bad new story. It presents huge opportunity for us to disrupt the thinking of our competitor’s customers. To get them to realize that good enough or not unhappy will not support their future success and growth.
The bad news is 71% of our own customers are thinking the same thing. They are prime targets for a competitor who believes good enough is not good enough. Or we may be wanting to expand our relationships with our current customers, in sales speak, cross sell, upsell, gain greater share of account. But 71% of those customers are indifferent or actively disengaged. The old wisdom of “It’s far easier to sell to current customers than it is to new customers,” no longer seems true. We have to work just as hard or harder to regain their trust, confidence, interest and overcome their indifference.
Good enough is also devastating to our own organizations. “The way we’ve always done things,” is the seed to becoming irrelevant and uncompetitive.
While it worked (March 08, 2016) and may be working today, tomorrow it will be less effective. Not because we are any less effective, we may be even better at doing the same old thing. But those same old things are not competitive. A competitor may change the rules, an innovative startup will turn the industry upside down. What our customers want to do or need to do to change requires us to change to support them.
Good enough is devastating! Don’t settle for good enough, don’t let your customers settle for good enough.
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