Is It Just Me, Or…
Schafran Associates LLC recently celebrated its one year anniversary, and the decision to work for myself was one of the best I’ve ever made. Listening intently to customers, gaining their insights, and helping them find solutions from my clients’ portfolios of products and services align perfectly with my mission to restore the B2B customer experience. In a short period of time, I’ve combined my skill set, industry contacts, and new client base into a formidable engine of collaboration and innovation.
However, in the course of doing business, I’ve noticed that some deals simply aren’t closing as they should. People are genuinely interested, conversations are cordial, products are proven, value is clearly being delivered, but contracts aren’t being signed or purchase orders aren’t being issued. Have I missed the mark? I don’t think so.
The high-value, niche market segments in which I operate are all behaving the same. Although the pandemic is in the rear view mirror, softness lingers, the consequence of a global economy mired in inflation, anemic growth and conflict. Chip shortages and depleted military inventories should be driving manufacturing and innovation into a frenzy, but it’s not happening. Commerce is certainly in motion, but caution and hesitation abound. “We’ll take a look at that project later this year.” “That volume demand won’t be ready until 2024.” “We’re sorting out production issues instead of R&D at this time.”
Read the news headlines, or glance through your social media feeds, or even worse, watch the talking heads on TV. Do they inspire confidence? If you were around in the 1970s, you sat through this movie before. May President Carter be blessed in the twilight of his life, but the gloom of his “Crisis of Confidence” speech from over 40 years ago is suddenly familiar, and should be required reading today.
Quoting the great Yogi Berra, “It’s deja vu all over again.” Or, as one of my old bosses always used to say, “Is that a light at the end of the tunnel, or the oncoming train?”
In spite of this environment, some customers and clients have already read the tea leaves and are preparing for the coming inflection point. These companies flourish due to their creativity, ingenuity and grit. Finding these pockets of optimism is truly rewarding, and with a deeper dive, more of them are discovered each day. So visualize success now, and when it arrives, be ready to leverage it to the fullest.
I thrive on helping connect customers with solutions, but don’t forget to buy something!