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When my wife and I were first married, like a lot of other younger couples, we began furnishing our new home via garage sales.   The second time we went out together she fell in love with a large painting that would go perfectly with the couch we just bought.  I asked the owner how much and she said, “$40”.  I took a deep breath and said, “I can’t give you $40 but I will give you $25”.  All of a sudden my wife blurts out, “Babe, the frame is worth more than that”!!!  After a few moments of awkward silence and with the owner of the painting smiling, I turned to my wife and said, “We need to talk”.

If you’ve heard it once, you’ve heard it a thousand times, “I can’t afford a new ERP” or “I can’t afford to change ERPs”!  When you add the cost of purchasing a couple of servers, racks to house the servers, backup systems, firewall and security, and hiring expertise to manage the equipment to the cost of implementing a new ERP system, it can get really expensive really fast.  It can almost seem overwhelming to a lot of small business owners.  Yet, the cost to implement a new ERP doesn’t have to be that overwhelming if you take an Operating Expense (OPEX) approach instead of a Capital Expense (CAPEX) approach.

In business, your ASPIRATIONS are a key factor in your success or failure. Let’s say for an example that you just finished a very successful implementation or you closed a large sale. Everything went perfectly...you did all the right things, the client loved you, you finished on time and on budget, your product produced an immediate ROI and it was a pleasure working with the client. This recent success will impact how you approach your next implementation or sale. The positive outcome will affect your ASPIRATIONS and carry over to your next engagement.

Yet, we don’t succeed every time do we? Let’s say you just had a horrible implementation or a horrible support session with a client. If you let it, this negative outcome will affect how you go into your next support call or engagement. Or let’s say you lost a big sale because a competitor dropped their price. This negative outcome can have an affect your next sale and you’re more likely to go in offering a discount based on your past experience. Or worse, you go on your next sales call believing there’s no way this prospect will buy what you’re selling. More often than we’d like to believe, we let our negative ASPIRATIONS control our outcomes.

Only you control your ASPIRATIONS. If you believe that a current client is so tough and unreasonable and no matter what you do you can’t satisfy them, you probably can’t. If you believe that a customer won’t buy at your current price, they probably won’t. If you believe that a competitor has more flexibility than you, they probably do. If you believe that your competitor’s product is better, it probably is. So before you’re next engagement, whatever it is, check your ASPIRATION level. Sometimes it’s good to ignore that little voice on your shoulder.

One thing is for sure, if you don’t believe your product can compete, if you don’t believe you can work with a client, if you don‘t believe you can reach a positive result, you won’t even try.

About the author: Bob Tobey spent over 20 years teaching managers, customer support and sales people how to be better at their craft. These blogs are intended to help the I-BN partner community improve their business.

I-Business Network has been managing cloud infrastructure since 1999, long before the cloud was even called the cloud. We specialize in hosting SAP Business One, Sage 100cloud, Sage 300cloud, Sage 500cloud, Sage CRM, Sage HRMS, Sage FAS and Sage BusinessWorks in two SSAE 16 data centers. For more information about hosting your Sage ERP in the cloud, contact Bob Tobey at btobey@i-bn.net.

In the consulting industry there has been hot debate over time and materials versus value based billing.  Keeping track of time adds no value to the customer, and billing by the hour often creates an adversarial relationship.  So is there an intrinsic value to time?

Digital transformation is not always easy. It’s essential for almost every business to undertake and starting your transformation journey is often the toughest part. Knowing the right tools for successful digital transformation is the first step. In this article, Terri Jones discusses some essential tools for anyone in the process of transforming their business. Tools such as code-free software and advanced integration can really help seamlessly allow your business to transform to meet your customers’ changing needs.