First, Make sure you check out next month's teleseminar! You'll get a FREE copy of Data@Risk, my latest book on security, and great insights on marketing your business! Look for the RED phone on the RIGHT....

When I ask clients, “What is your company’s focus?” and the reply comes back, “Unified communications,” something is wrong. UC is a product, a widget, or a commodity. This kind of product- centric thinking will threaten the viability of your business.

• Products and Profit: Even retail stores recognize that product alone is the wrong focus. High-end grocery stores spotlight the experience, gourmet foods, or prepared food for working parents. Stop concentrating on the widget and start focusing on the value people get from your offering.

• VARS: Value added reseller programs were originally started as a way to fulfill high demands coming from the adoption of commodity technology. Stop using the word VAR, stop acting like a VAR, and refuse to be treated like a VAR.

• Product/Install: When I look at a company’s financials, they often reveal balanced hardware to services ratios. Product/Install is not analogous to services. Vendors frequently encourage their partners to drag services by selling product. A better strategy would be to drag product with consultative services.

• Techs and Consultants: Don’t expect clients to pay consultant prices for people with tech titles or to people who act more like technicians than analysts.

Asking questions of an executive, that an IT person can answer, always leads to a demotion. Can an IT person answer the following questions?

• How much down time can your organization stand with this application?
• How much data can you afford to lose on this system?
• What is the cost of data theft or misuse in a given application?
• What is the impact of this data getting out – customer data, intellectual capital, etc?
• Do people travel with this data, take it home, email it out, or in any other way remove data from its safe location?

IT thinks they can answer every one of these questions, but don’t be fooled – they can’t. Can you see the running theme here that makes these questions important? They all deal with cost and benefit to the organization. IT never really understands these areas, although they will almost always claim they do. For the last question above, IT may give you a policy answer, but they won’t really know the truth. Again, don’t ask for meetings with CIOs where you show up with IT directed questions.

A few months ago I was in a restaurant restroom watching my six year old son frantically waving his arms in from of a towel dispenser. In desperation he turned to me, wondering why the towel was not dispensing. I reached over and pulled the next sheet from the “old fashioned silver box”. He just looked at it, shrugged and said, “Oh.” If that wasn’t enough, my son of just eighteen months was seen in front of his bedroom door last week trying to stick a Ving card in the doorknob. These are all good examples of exerting energy in the wrong direction; or perhaps just spending too much time on the road!

If you did not sign up for this newsletter or have decided you're not interested in learning about how to grow your business or beat the competition you unsubscribe simply by following the instructions below:

TO UNSUBSCRIBE: Simply reply to this email with a subject heading of UNSUBSCRIBE

Please pass this on to anyone you know who is working to build a profitable solutions business today. Consider having David Stelzl speak at your next quarterly meeting or customer event. Create a value proposition that positions you as the expert and attracts new clients. Consider hiring a professional coach to accelerate the process.