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VigilantJon wrote: 2 points on this: 1) Depending on the organization, why buy and go through that risk? Outsourcing this level of support and technology reduces organizational strain enabling IT to focus on improving business integration and innovation. This is not just an infrastructure monitoring problem, so picking a company who understands service management and service warranty is a must. 2) While grouping services, it is imperative that organizations look at their services and determine - what are those t...


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The Power of the Plan, or Why We Crashed and Burned
A big company has one last chance to rise from a serious downturn

Picture this. A big company has one last chance to rise from a serious downturn. But the company has lots going for it.

  • An unbelievably loyal customer and market following,
  • A game changing innovation,
  • A significant demand for exactly that innovation,
  • A bit of money to back it.

I watched customer after customer 'light up' as we told our story. We relaunched the company around that game changing solution to widely acclaimed success. In all my years I've never seen customers react so consistently, so passionately. It was the proverbial slam dunk. Within a month of the relaunch, there was $60+M of qualified potential revenue in the pipeline.

Sounds great, right? 

Wrong. Six months later the company is facing tougher times than ever.

The new product?  It's still there, dying in the corporate gloom.

So what happened?

The Plan happened. Oh, there were other things, other factors that played. But most of all, the Plan happened.

This company Plan of Record called for the development/enhancement, selling and support of a broad range of products including:

The game-changing innovation offered:

  • strong differentiation - as in 'only one of its kind'
  • 4-5x the product margins - probably double that 
  • a residual leasing revenue model - predictable, high margin revenue
  • immediate customer demand - everyone wanted to buy it.

But, since the game changing innovation didn't have revenues (yet) it was allocated a paltry share of The Plan.  BTW - company revenues were increasing according to The Plan, but the company was losing more money than ever and draining cash along the way. What does that tell you about the quality of those revenues - and of The Plan

Even after the launch success, the customer meetings, the pipeline -  the plan was still The Plan. The rest, well, let's just say this story doesn't have a fairytale ending.

This company was positioned to soar again.  But thanks to The Power of the Plan - this perfectly set up Phoenix crashed and burned before it ever had the chance to fly.

You'd change course rather than fly into a thunderstorm, wouldn't you?   Even if that storm wasn't in your flight plan?

Markets change, customers change, people change - plans should change too.

Read the original blog entry...

About Rebel Brown
Rebel Brown is a go-to-market strategist specializing in start ups, turnarounds and startarounds in the B2B arena. In twenty-five plus years Rebel has led over one hundred successful client engagements, redefining companies and products, evolving market strategies, expanding product offerings and driving successful sales and marketing endeavors.

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