TIME TO BURST YOUR BUBBLE So everybody already knows your company and you already know everybody whom you need to know?  I here this quite a lot from a number of companies.  Get real… if it only it were that easy!  It’s represents a dangerous degree of complacency.  Consider the following facts from Harris InfoSource, a D&B Company.   Changes in North & South Carolina in 1 year 3,520 firms in North &  South Carolina closed 3,270 new business listings on the Harris InfoSource database 3,235 businesses changed addresses 15,055 new decision-makers were added to the Harris InfoSource database 10,280 decision-maker titles changed 2,370 new or changed phone and fax numbers from Harris InfoSource, a D&B Company   Even the most well organized sales team can’t keep track of all of these changes.  So with all of this in mind, consider: Did any of your customers go out of business?  What are you doing to replace them?  Do you have too many eggs in one basket?  Are you comfortable with that level of risk or do you need to diversify your customer base?  What are you doing about it? How much time are spending servicing existing customers versus finding new ones?  Do you have the resources to do both effectively? People continue to start new businesses and companies continue to move into the Carolinas or expand into the Carolinas.  How can you possibly know them all? How good is your customer list and your prospect list?  How long will it be before you are aware of changes to address, phone and fax numbers?  When you are the guy trying to sell them something, are you the first one your prospects will notify when they move or change positions? Who are all of those new decision makers?  Do you know all of them?  With all of those title changes, is your contact still the right person?  Despite your best efforts, can you really keep track of all of this?  Your marketplace and the people you target are constantly in flux.  More importantly, with all of this flux, how can you ever know how to be in the right place, at the right time, in front of the right people?  You may think you know it all, but do you really?  Most importantly, what are you doing to increase your odds of being in front of the right people, in the right place at the right time?  You have to do something.  Be honest; you might know a lot of people, but you are really not their top priority.  Plus, you really do not know everyone and everyone does not know you.  If only it were that easy…

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THOUGHTS TO PONDER:   “Most companies are pretty happy to keep doing what they’re doing.  The [successful] companies are willing to let go of what’s working today to make room for whats going to work tomorrow.” Joe Calloway, from his book Becoming a Category of One, as quoted in Amercian Way magazine from American Airlines.   “Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge” Charles Darwin   “It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.”  Charles Darwin   “Only the wisest and stupidest of men never change.”  Confucius   “Opportunities multiply as they are seized.” Sun Tzu   “Start by doing what's necessary, then do what's possible, and suddenly you are doing the impossible.”  Saint Francis of Assisi   “They say that time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself.” Andy Warhol   “…customers have a choice when facing a complaint:  They can call you or call your competition.  Complaints are second chances, and we don’t get too many of those.”  Lior Arussy, President of Statrivity Group, StrativityGroup.com, as quoted in “Complaints Are Great. Keep Them Coming”, Customer Relationship Management, Nov 2003.