When To Say No

When To Say No

Let’s face it, market conditions are challenging. We know originations are projected to be down by 40% next year. Nonetheless, everyone is trying to get a leg up, of course. Now is the season to plan for 2011, and companies are hard at work doing just that.
In meeting with a number of clients, they’re heavily focused on planning for 2011.

They’re in brainstorming sessions as we speak here today. What are they saying? They’re talking about new innovations, products and services. As they do that they have a I’ll-take-on-the-world mentality. While all of this is very important, what some times they fail to realize is that to successfully maximize resources, especially in today’s market, it’s vital for the executives to learn when to say no. Here’s what I mean:

First let’s think about this: Why would executives say no? Executives want to usher in new ideas and innovations, but too many new products or ideas can lead to resources getting spread too thin. What happens in this case? The vendor becomes a jack of all trades and a master of none. You don’t want that.

If you really want to gain traction in 2011 it’s better to successfully execute a handful of new strategies instead of moving forward with 50 new ideas and not doing a great job on any of those deliverables. Now is not the time to do anything half way. There are several companies waiting to take your clients if you slip up.

When you really think about it, when you have too many ideas, too many new strategies, too many things to implement, the vendor often just spins their wheels. They end up chasing everything under the sun in a desperate dash to bring in revenue. That is clearly not the way to go.

So, what is the way to go? What companies need to do is to be persistent and consistent. The market is unstable, lenders don’t want their vendor partners to be equally unstable. Going further, vendors need to pick their battles and really strategize about how to execute those top ideas. Remember, you can’t do everything.

What do clients want? More than ever they want a trusted partner how is focused on solving today’s challenges. Tons of new ideas and innovations that are poorly executed have no place in this market. Strategies that solve a clear business problem however, are timeless. Now is the time for companies to ensure that they’re timeless.

Michael
mhammond@nexleveladvisors.com