Managing The Big Shift

Call it the Great Recession, the debt crisis, the banking crisis, the meltdown of the consumer economy, the attack of global market capitalism, the big slow down — or the Big Shift.

In a polarized political world, we can all agree that conditions are lousy for small and medium business.

Almost no one was prepared for this, either by education, by training, or by managerial experience. Orders on the books are delayed or cancelled. New customers may want your product but won’t pull the trigger and buy. Your customers are spending less or spending their money offshore. You’re unsure of how much to risk in new product development and equally unsure of how much your competitors are investing to takeaway what you have.

The whole sales relationship with your customer has changed. It is no longer personal. The people authorized to buy do not understand your value proposition. The people who understand your value—and technology—are not authorized to buy. Salesmanship isn’t dead but there is a firewall and brick wall around your customer and a dragon in the moat.

It is considered rude to call a prospect without getting permission by email first. And it is proving almost impossible to get the email address of a decision-maker. And then only one in five recipients will even open your message. And only one in a hundred will respond.

Everything is easier and more promising if a prospect calls you. So you optimize search and social media. Which means that you are competing in a search engine-driven auction to sell your products, ideas, knowhow and services.

How do you achieve margins in a global auction?

Because of all that you know it is difficult to be optimistic and to believe that there is a realistic remedy for your organization’s situation.

Yet significant opportunities for business success remain across the US and world economy. Every transition is also a transaction. And every transaction has an opportunity for revenue generation with profits.

Since 2004, RFD Insight has led its clients through these conditions to establish new margins on sales, win new customers, grow revenue, and create hope for the future.

RFD Insight is a different kind of business consulting firm. Quite simply, there is no one else quite like us.