COVID-19 Series: How to assess business vulnerability and address it proactively?

This article is written upon request from a friend who heads Sales & Client Engagement of a mid-sized company.  This article could be more applicable to companies that: 1. Have revenue dependence on other countries / external markets, 2. Are NOT offering ‘essential services’, 3. May be competing in tough markets, 4. Could be adversely impacted due to COVID-19, 5. More so in B2B segment.

In the next few minutes, we will deep dive into:

1. Assessing company’s positioning (and risk) with the Clients
2. Identifying the clients with whom company is ‘moderate to high’ vulnerable
3. Qualifying opportunities and move up the value-chain to minimize vulnerability.

One of the primary reasons behind failure is giving up too early!

Simple 4-Step Process

Would like to suggest a simple 4-step process for this exercise. As it is not business-as-usual, would recommend treating each client individually, given the fact that each client is unique in its own ways, throughout this process.

 Step 1: Identify and list out the clients who will considerably impact our financials / future. We will refer them as ‘major clients’

Step 2: Critically answer the following questions w.r.t. the clients identified in Step 1. Participating members for this exercise could ideally include respective Sales Member or Manager / Client Manager / Business Manager / Delivery Manager:

• What will be the initial reactions of the client when companies re-open or resume operations?
• Will the client’s priorities change?
• Will the client relook at their budget allocations w.r.t. our offerings?
• What will be the client’s priority spend area(s) when they re-open? Do our offerings get featured in that list??
• Will the client review their vendor list?
• What’s the probability that client will include us in their must-have vendors?
• NOTE: Nature of company's offerings play an important role. Assign appropriate weightage based on the nature of offerings: must-have, nice-to-have, growth-oriented, high-value items, transactional, operational, statutory / compliance related, niche-creator, etc.

If you see the word customer in customize, you're onto something — to customize is to make something to a customer's specifications.

(Source: unknown)

Step 3: Consolidate your responses and map them in the following quadrant for each major client with the help of participating team (Refer. Step 2):

Step 4: Step 3 determines where your offerings fall in the client’s entire value chain. So, CROs must come up with action plan(s) in association with other CXOs & participant teams and start actioning upon. This will improve the chances of retaining client(s) and reduced vulnerability.

Illustrative action items based on quadrant of offerings:

Knowledge is power when there is information everywhere. Your ability to prove that you are experts and can offer the best solution goes a long way in retaining customer.

Points to note:

1.      The quote “One size fits all” may not apply here. Do customize action plans for each major client

2.      All clients may NOT require a dedicated approach. Hence, ‘major clients’ could be prioritized

3.      In challenging times such as the current ones, resources are limited. One has to use resources very judiciously. The outlined approach is framed considering the same

4.      The outcome of this exercise could be largely influenced by the appropriateness and quality of participants chosen apart from facilitator(s).

Disclaimer: This article serves as a reference document. The suggested solution has to be customized to take optimal advantage. The business areas referred to are the ones -vely impacted due to COVID-19. Hence, readers may have to apply discretion while taking the cues and customizing them through their in-house or external Consultants.

If the readers have any particular questions in conducting the assessments, they can write to me at sthalapalli@gmail.com.