Lead and Win with the Pre-emptive Strike
Let's take a look at how your relationships with your clients help you to stay in the leading position with them. You are in friendly relationships based on your abilities to continue to meet your promises with your clients. Your promises not only include delivering what your clients need and ask for, but there is also an understanding that you will go beyond their usual expectations. Very likely that is how you won their loyalty in the first place. When your organization is compared with others, your clients recognize that you are superior because you are active in their business, while your competitors are complacent. As the leading contender in the race for value, you exude excitement for their businesses.
While this is a very desirable situation to be in with your clients, the reality is you don't have a binding permanent agreement with them. At any time, and possibly without notice, in a fast changing world, you could find yourself in a disappointing position.
How do you stay on the winning side of the business battlefield? First of all, you need to develop a sensing organization that can see when the potential for harm may be on the horizon; and an action-oriented executive team that is ready to act based on early warning signals.
“Before everything else, getting ready is the secret of success.” Henry Ford
Take Action with the Pre-emptive Strike. “Pre-emptive strike” is a military term that describes the occasion of surprising an opponent by presenting a deterrent against their anticipated threats.
When should you decide to deploy a pre-emptive strike as your best tactic? If your firm is mature enough, the time for a pre-emptive strike was yesterday! The next best time is tomorrow. The reality today, is every one of your competitors is trying to figure out how to bring greater value to your customer. Your best customer is their hot prospect! The other very scary reality is other suppliers who do not participate in your industry may eventually broaden their footprint and provide an integrated solution that renders your firm obsolete. Finally, your customers circumstances may change rapidly and they may find they no longer value your services.
For all of these reasons, the sooner you can get your organization to become an agile, learning organization that is able to adapt to change, the sooner you can lead your industry with game-changing moves. Fortune favours firms that operate with a pre-emptive strategy.
Here's the strategy:
1. Ignore the competition.
They are blinded by rivalry! Your competitors are locked into thinking about situations based on the way they’ve always thought about them. Because of this, they are blind to the many opportunities to create game-changing value for customers.
2. Collect customer intelligence.
You need to immerse yourself in the world of your customer. What frustrations are they facing? What sacrifices are they making? Where are they living with work-around solutions? How is their world changing? How are their priorities changing? What new realities are emerging for them? Accomplishing a pre-emptive strike requires ample reliable intelligence and insight; and a keen awareness of how your customer’s world is changing and what new opportunities and threats are emerging as a result.
3. Now consider your position relative to the competition.
Take a good look at how you have been providing value to your customer. How can you make yourself obsolete? Consider those things that you may be overlooking and spaces that may be open that can be filled by others. Is there a way for you to combine products and services from multiple vendors to make life easier for your customer?
4. Gather your resources.
Remember that open communication with trustworthy people makes good business sense. Communicate with your trusted people throughout your organization. Ask questions that identify any potential threats to your viability, and possible solutions that will bring about a winning outcome. Get in touch with allies in business: call and meet your business friends to get a bigger, smarter view.
5. Collaborate with your customer.
Seek out those customers who really value their partnership with you. Show them how you you can fill an emerging need better, faster, and more completely than the status quo. Ensure you have the full support of several key customers before going any further.
6. Fortify your position.
Consider the most efficient way to use your information and resources to naturally increase switching costs. Build up any conceivably weak areas in your infrastructure by making them strong and resilient to malevolent outside forces.
7. Deliver your value under the radar.
Make sure you hit a home run with a few key clients and you have documented case studies of the impact your innovative offering has had on their business.
8. Mount your pre-emptive campaign!
Surprise the market with your new offering. Broadcast it far and wide. Seek to make it the new defacto standard. During this phase, you have the golden opportunity to practice your commitment to better services and products, by delivering on your promises and exceeding expectations in a way that makes current offerings obsolete.
What is the result of your decision to mount the pre-emptive strike? You make your competition irrelevant. Rather than fighting for market dominance, you win by focusing on continually delivering new value to your customers. In a world of uncertainty, and upheaval, you win by an obsessive focus on helping your clients navigate a future that comes at them fast.