Demand budgeting. Once the discussion with customers has begun around services, this is the essential next step. Imagine working with a restaurant for meal delivery. Service discussions mean that we offer and want customers to order things like “ lasagna and side salad”. But if demand planning continues the “GL Account” way, then the conversation would go like this: “Today for lunch I want lasagna and a side salad. Tomorrow I am expecting company, so I will want 3lbs of ground beef, a pound of noodles, a head of lettuce, two tomatoes and 2 cups of ricotta. *“ You can see that this is not only MORE awkward than 100% component discussions, it works against the enterprise making the shift. In order to become a service based organization, services need to be the unit of discussion at all phases of the conversation. This means creating a shift in process and tools so that you can have a relationship and ongoing conversation with customers about how the value they are getting out of your current services are shifting. Demand should not just be a conversation around adding or decreasing heads in the organization, but should be a discussion about the bottom line business value of services and how shifting business goals may impact the demand for those services.
*yes, I know this is not the real recipe for lasagna