Our Opportunity: Commercial Empathy

A Bloomberg economic model forecast a 100% chance of a US recession within 12 months. Jeff Bezos warned companies to “batten down the hatches”. Elon Musk forecasts that we’re going to be in a recession “probably until spring of ’24” and well Gwyneth Paltrow said, “The economy sucks.”

So there you have it. It's going to get tough.

But it's in the tough where we find deeper meaning.

Now is not the time to recoil. Now is the time to move with the alacrity of a streaking soccer fan dodging security guards. Now is the time for commercial empathy.

Commercial empathy moves provider/customer relationships to a new level of shared understanding and intimacy. 

How does it work?

Think of it as an operating system or a digital collaborative environment between you and your customer. A place where you can go to have real conversations on opportunities and constraints. A workspace which gently pushes you and them to see value from the other's perspective. You match outcomes to capabilities, co-create value journeys, build partnerships KPIs, and finally conduct growth planning on the pathway to realize new value together.

To make this tangible, let's do a quick tour of the Ecosystems software:

• Outcome Discovery: The provider listens carefully and shares understanding of the customer's desired outcomes in real time. The customer comes to a true understanding of how the provider's capabilities align with desired outcomes. Through careful give and take, you and your customer reach a shared vision of success.

• Value Journey: Both parties come together to align capabilities and resources with desired outcomes -- all the good stuff that materialized in Outcome Discovery. Together, you sketch and build a value journey together.

• Partnership Success Metrics: Here's a fully equipped workspace for collaborating and quantifying value. Together with your customer you can choose from a pre-built library of value drivers that are both monetized and non-monetized to represent holistic partnership value.

• Future Value: Both parties identify where they've delivered value together, and now, the software keeps them together as they realize that this partnership is unmatched -- and unmatchable. Collectively, you and the customer develop future value together.

In business we are in a constant state of becoming. Now is our opportunity to become partners with our customer in commercial empathy.