To say that the last few years have been rough would be an understatement. The reality is though, that it is going to get a lot worse. Companies and organizations that went through (or worse) were started in the 90’s got a little spoiled. People would pay for stupid, worthless crap. Especially when it comes to B2B sales. Instead of trying to buy a quality product or service that would move a company forward, employees of the buyer’s just tried to spend money to make themselves look like they were working and contributing.

The truly sad thing is that it worked. You had companies who provided a bucket of crap selling to companies who could buy a bucket of crap and still continue to make profit. People spent freely and the bucket of crap continued to sell.

Fast forward to today. Your worthless employees who were buying buckets of crap and justifying that as a job are started to get weeded out. The sad thing is that there were a whole lot more of them out there than we expected. There are still some more to weed out truthfully. That is not to say that any employee laid off during this recent downturn is that type of employee, some of those had bosses that were this type of employee and instead of buying crap they pour their buckets of crap on someone else and stick around for a few more years.

This model doesn’t work anymore. I say it is getting a lot worse because the first round was the crap buyers. When consumers started not buying their un-innovated services and products because they have been filling it with crap for the last 10 years, they started going under. Now it is time for the second wave, those companies who have been selling the buckets of crap to other businesses that are no longer in business to buy their crap.

Here is a real life example. I was forced to work with a consulting firm by upper management. This firm is sort of a catch all bucket of crap firm. They try to do everything under the sun from HR consulting to marketing consulting, and are really good at none of it. They are hired in so that every other week I can sit in a room with them and tell them the progress I’ve made on a marketing plan (which is another bucket of crap to talk about for another day). What value does our $14,500 give us in return for this company that we have hired?

Businesses must be innovative and drive in new value added ideas, services and products if they actually want to survive. When it comes to buying a bucket of crap or making payroll, the businesses that they are selling to will make payroll and try to survive for another month every time. Instead though for the most part these businesses are not changing, but rather trying harder to push the same old services they did 10 years ago and they are going to fail.

Another example, people talk about print being dead. Print is not dead, print companies are dead. Print companies (by and large) refused to change business models. When the businesses they sell to start making budget cuts things like letter head show their big, ugly, non-value added, bucket of crap face. It gets cut. Envelopes get cut. That customer newsletter gets cut. The catalog that gets pushed out once a quarter of products gets cut because there is already a website. So slowly but surely the print company loses their B2B client. As more clients face shrinking budgets, the print company loses more clients. Soon enough by sticking to their safe tried and true business model they become a dinosaur. They are still alive, but the asteroid is coming.

The print company that decided to evolve however lives. And therefore print lives. That company realizes the need for 5,000 letter heads is declining so they switch to digital print that can run off 10. They see newsletters and catalogs going away so they change their company model to match what the client actual needs rather than what makes them feel safe. They suddenly become something different than a print company because print companies are dead.

This is not unique to print, many other industries will see a fallout over the next few years. Consultants, public relations, marketing, web design, advertising, and many others that sell to businesses that need evolution rather than buckets of crap to survive will find themselves going away.

Evolution is tough. But in times like this, it is necessary. Ask yourself if your business is constantly pushing forward to provide a better product or service that will add value back to your clients, or are you just selling them a bucket of crap and hoping they buy it anyway. I know I’ve been on both sides of this one, and chances are you know the answer even if you are not willing to admit it.