Nothing. Not a sausage. Results are neither instant nor can they be done FOR you. As an outsider, I can only offer you value in various shapes and forms but it's your responsibility to turn those values into lasting results. Only you, the owner of your company can do that.
The problem is that with this "produce instant results for me" approach you'll attract some great scumbags and con artists who will apply all sorts of tricks of the trade to make you believe there are some immediate results. The situation may even appear to be "immediate results."
But...
Many years ago, to put myself through university, I worked as an embalmer (among others), and saw that dying patients, about 30-90 minutes before dying, for no apparent reason, became very lively and cheerful. Then they soon kicked the bucket and became very very still.
This is exactly what happens to instant results. They don't last. Just look at lottery winners. A few months after winning their millions, they're flat dead broke again.
You can send a duck to eagle school, and up to a point the duck will be doing fine. But when it comes to flying and hunting, the duck can't pretend any more. And this is why instant gratification is not lasting gratification.
It's like a one-night stand with a hooker. You pay and you get immediate "results". The problem is that you have an increased chance of going home with AIDS, syphilis or similar diseases which will impact you for life.
And what are the business equivalents of AIDS or syphilis? Well, antagonising the marketplace. You can create hype and bullshit to fool people once, and many IT companies do just that. And after one experience with their companies, these clients will be singing those companies' requiem to their contacts, and soon their businesses will be dead and buried.
In a world where principles rule the land, as opposed to tricks of the trade, you don't get far with flavour of the month tricks. You get found out the same way Enron, Arthur Andersen, Worldcom and the other scumbags have been found out. And you may not go to prison, but definitely end up in the Business Hall Of Shame.
Any farmer, including me, a former farmer, will tell you that first you plant, then you harvest. And between planting and harvesting you let the seed incubate. You can't plant today and harvest tomorrow. And you definitely can't harvest without planting first.
You can probably see now that it takes time to produce a "premium client" after the first contact.
The reason why many IT companies have nothing to harvest today because they didn't plant yesterday. It's that simple. Of course, those leaders would be better off by doing some farming instead of their MBAs. At least farming is based on principles not on tricks.
You have to decide what you want. The proverbial one-night stand with a hooker, that is, a quick one-shot sale, or lasting relationships with your target market that lead to repeat and referral business.
At an awards ceremony, Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft, was summarising Microsoft's success. His message was...
"Hard, hard, hard, hard, hard, work."
Basketball legend, Michael Jordan has put it this way...
"I've missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed."
Imagine that a company that employs some of the best and brightest in the industry but still relies on consistent hard work not occasional forehead-slapping moments.
The fact is that state of your business is merely a reflection of what's inside your head. In order to see different results in your business, you have to be willing to think differently, to look at your situation from a different perspective.
And as Henry Ford once said
"Thinking is one of the hardest things there is. That's why only so few people do it."
James Allen put it this way in his book, As A Man Thinketh...
"Men are anxious to improve their circumstances, but are unwilling to improve themselves. They therefore remain bound."
Until and unless you can think differently about your business, you'll be your own greatest enemy and the greatest hindrance and liability to your business. And no outsider can ever change that.
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