Why You Should Challenge the Status Quo Before Making Changes
While the status quo is comfortable, organizations often miss opportunities for meaningful change as their strategies evolve alongside market patterns and platforms.
Let's explore a few examples where an organization is considering whether to:
Replace a CRM system with another CRM platform based on cost, functionality, etc
Continue to use a full-service marketing agency that provides strategy, creative, and campaign execution services by renewing their contract or running an RFP process
Provide a quote for best fit products with pricing based on back-and-forth between a prospect and salesperson
All of these sound like reasonable things to continue doing, right?
But, is there another way to satisfy the underlying use cases of each example that is different from the status quo?
Let's challenge the assumption that the status quo makes sense and consider how an alternative approach could augment each of these examples.
Instead of replacing a CRM system with another CRM platform...
Move to a collaboration platform like Slack as the front end
Send alerts and display visualizations as data changes in other applications and data sources
Leverage workflow and automation platforms to facilitate business process execution
Instead of continuing to use a full-service marketing agency...
Hire a fractional resource to assist with crafting strategy
Use generative AI to assist with drafting variations of content to edit with the existing marketing team
Learn how to perform the core functions of existing marketing automation platforms to execute the campaigns
Instead of providing a quote for best fit products with pricing...
Collect the necessary details to understand intent and needs with (a series of) web forms
Create a pipeline with an automation platform and generative AI to understand the appropriate product mix
Prepare a quote with pricing that includes any relevant bundling and discounts
With those examples in mind, intentionally pause at the start of a program or project to ask what alternatives exist and whether those would lead to unexpected innovations and gains.
TLDR: Before replacing a system, vendor, or a business process, challenge the assumption that the status quo is worth continuing and consider alternatives.