GE (GE) can no longer prosper on manufactured goods alone. ''Our job is to sell more than just the box."
The understanding that the job we face in today's economy is that we must "sell more than just the box," is a direct reference to building up a service business that reinforces and is built out from products, and in a number of cases: servicing the services we offer.
What we need to learn to look for, is not only the obvious service related to our own products we offer, but to service anything within a sector we can. The real growth opportunities aren't in the obvious connections, but in the things seemingly unrelated to our core business.
Jack Welch was excellent with building these strong relationships with his customers, and then from delivering on what he promised, getting even more business unrelated in most ways from the original agreement.
IBM (IBM) was another company that saw this in relationship to the computer and tech industry, and totally changed their core product from computers to service. It has worked well for them.
The "box," as represented by Welch, was a reference to manufactured goods as they related to the General Electric business of that time.
What Welch knew, especially domestically, was that there was no way the company would have a lot of growth in the manufactured goods area before long. It was one of the reasons for focusing on global expansion under his reign.
At the same time, he started to realize the untapped potential that existing business relationships had for GE, and how he was leaving a lot on the table.
The company eventually started to service an extraordinary number of things that they hadn't thought of in the past. Things like helping power plants run more efficiently to running engine service shops for airlines.
When developing products and services, learn to look beyond the obvious servicing opportunities that exist in the business relationship, to looking at the business relationship itself. The company you are working with could have a huge array of other products and services just waiting to be streamlined or helped in ways that could open up tremendous opportunities for our businesses.
The key is to learn to look to the business relationship, rather than only the product you may be selling and servicing to a business at this time. There is gold just waiting to be found beyond the parameters we're now in. Look to the relationship you've established, and every product within the company could be a possibility that you could service.
Other Jack Welch Resources:
Jack Welch's advice to MIT Sloan students
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Tracked on: November 11, 2007 2:57 PM | Permalink to Trackback