The Weekly Crossroads: Jan 15, 2026

2026 has been a wild ride, and we aren’t even through January yet. Big changes in economics, markets, customer trends, and underlying social and cultural structures are well underway.

It’s a tough time to be in business….but it’s ALWAYS a tough time to be in business! Strong operating teams who can generate revenue via profitable and sustainable systems will not only survive but thrive during this time of transition.

What’s the key to thriving? It’s being able to define and measure the value that you bring to your customers.

Inflation is pinching customers at both the retail wholesale levels, so to justify ever higher prices, you will need to offer ever higher value via your offerings.

Fortunately, GTM Partners offers a strong framework to categorize product or service value at five levels:

  1. Attributable - creates direct revenue or other tangible benefits

  2. Transformative - allows access to a new market or unlocks better operations

  3. Efficiency - lowers costs and/or increases rate of production

  4. Necessity - gives your customer a table stakes item to manage their business/operations

  5. Indirect - a mixture of improvements with lower overall tangible value

This will be the year that the best CEOs and revenue teams will use value frameworks to assess, adjust, and confirm delivery of value to keep their businesses growing.

Read the full article via Substack here.

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The Weekly Crossroads: Jan 8, 2026