Too much choice can cause paralysis?
I was on the way up to Nottingham last week when I listened to an interesting article on Radio 4. It talks about the ‘tyranny of choice’ and is an interesting example of how large companies such as Asda have realised that having 88 different types of butter on the shelf has a less positive effect on their sales as opposed to reducing the range and guiding customers to decide.
Have a listen to it, it may help anyone thinking about diversification understand better the opportunity they have if they choose to specialise and focus instead.
Seth comments on it as well.
Have the guts to quit something that isn’t working for you. See it as strategic pruning rather than failure. Think about long term strategies as well as the short term. How long has it been since you revisited your business plan? Have you got a business plan? Sign up to Karl’s newsletter to help you keep the balance.
A Partner recently sent me an email talking about wanting to understand how to tie all ‘those disparate strands together to make a compelling message for our clients’. Many Partners have taken it back to basics, even used the Technology Assessment Toolkit on themselves to understand better where they should place their focus.
If you’ve been used to selling SBS with SharePoint and have worked out that this is your ‘thang’, then focus on that. I met Steve Smith a few weeks ago who is a SharePoint MVP who has done exactly this with his business, I’ve already recommended a few Partners join forces with him and many of us do the same with those who have pushed through their ‘dip’ and come out on the other side shining. Just look at Vlad with his hosted services or Julian’s focus on CRM.
Like everything, keep it simple, keep focussed, use the tools and resources around you and you’ll be better positioned than most!