It’s a solution, not my solution

I was once attached to a company that actively sought out to put themselves into the following trap:

Generate a suite of business solutions that we can hang our hat on. These solutions will serve the majority of businesses regardless of their market position and valuation. By generating a suite of “off the shelf” solutions, the company will save on resources that otherwise would have to go to generating unique solutions for every new client. Furthermore, once our sales team learns the suite, they can speak very passionately and effectively about it to prospects.

That company is no longer in business. This practice was a major contributor to their demise.

Quick, name two companies that operate exactly the same. Name two companies for which an off-the-shelf solution (software, operational, marketing, or otherwise) could quickly be immediately integrated and effective. You can’t because there is none.

Every business faces different challeneges dependent on a host of variables from their marketspace to their corporate values. Two different companies that make identical widgets do so in different ways.

I recently was connected to an organization which created boilerplate new business pitches. The budget that followed the boilerplate was, of course, customized to reflect the client and project, but the majority of the paperwork was submitted untouched. If you try to play this game, you put your chances of winning the business in peril. Your proposal comes off being to generic and ends up being as ineffective as a generic cover letter.

It takes work to get work. Anything worth having is worth working for. By taking the extra time to generate proposals and solutions for each individual situation shows that you are earnest when you say “I want to work with you. I want to do work for you.”