• Is your clients’ business the same or is it changing?
• Are you focused on their current and future needs?
• Has your competition changed?
• Are your company’s strengths well matched to your clients’ needs?
• Is your strategy working?

If your internal or external circumstances have changed or your strategy isn’t working, you need to do some triage. The summer is a good time to sit and have big-picture, strategic conversations. Talk to people inside and outside your company to get fresh information. Draw them out on what you should be doing.

Leveraging Knowledge

We were struck by a recent article in Business 2.0 entitled, “The Great Giveaway.” It outlined the many opportunities now available to entrepreneurs since the recent announcements from Amazon, eBay and Google that they are opening up their databases to other businesses. Examples of just some of the businesses that have been created to date include ScoutPal, a software program that gives used booksellers the ability to check the going price for books on eBay from a mobile phone and ChannelAdvisor, a tool that automates the sales process on sites such as Amazon and eBay for companies like IBM, Motorola and Sears. These new businesses don’t reduce the value of databases at Amazon and others—they actually increase it by driving more business to the site.

Beyond the specific opportunity with these three players, what really interests us is this: when should we think twice about “protecting” our business, our knowledge and our assets? When can we make more money by sharing or opening our business models? This is a new economic challenge. If you have mostly traditional, physical assets, it can be hard to share them. But if your business is based on knowledge and data, you don’t necessarily lose value by sharing it.

If many people can use the same data or intangible asset at the same time, there may be a multiplier effect. We are all stuck in the mindset of protecting assets— we haven’t shared since kindergarten. Next time you face a choice about how to build your business, consider the “open” alternative.

Read more on this topic.

Making Rain - The Secrets of Building Lifelong Client Loyalty
By Andrew Sobel

Andrew Sobel, a strategy and professional development consultant, worked for many years with one of the largest U.S. consulting firms. His book is aimed at those who strive to be considered a trusted advisor to their clients. He uses fascinating stories about Ben Franklin, Machiavelli, and others as well as his own client experiences to point out successful approaches to challenging opportunities.

Sobel sought input from many respected sources in the consulting and corporate world and wove their revelations into such chapters as “How to break through as an expert”, “Gaining the trust of the client”, and “Sustaining relationships.” Sobel disparages the salesperson who only talks about his own company without understanding the client’s business in-depth.

While a terrific read for consultants, it’s also appropriate for the lender who needs to go the extra mile to gain the borrower’s confidence, or the salesperson who needs to add value beyond simply the product or service they are selling.

Read more on Andrew Sobel’s book.

“Time to Raise Some Money?” by Trek principals was published this month in The Independent Consultant. Read the full text of the article.

In next month’s issue, we ask, “What planet are you from?”