Last month we defined the term "Business Fit", and explained why it is such a critical concept for value-oriented organizations. We said that business fit is a series of statements that describe how, working together, our relationship can help the customer to attain critical business objectives, implement key strategies, and/or address important issues.

One trap people often fall into when presenting business fit is to position themselves and their company as the source of the value, instead of the relationship. The working relationship is the key to the business fit. It's more than just the customer picking your solution, or you providing your service It is the combination of the two that makes the business fit so powerful.

Why? Because there's a big difference between:

"I have the leading edge technology and can provide you with a solution to improve your competitive advantage"

and

"Working together, we believe that our relationship will support one of your critical strategies, the creation of additional competitive advantage, as our combined market coverage and capabilities would result in an unprecedented ability to ..."

This phrasing helps to reinforce that the value is the result of the relationship, not their good fortune for having chosen to work with you. It shows the synergy and leverage that the relationship brings, and opens the door to other elements of value that could unfold in the future.

Keep in mind this last point; that this type of business fit statement really appeals to senior level decision makers who can buy the value you can provide.