Symptom: Those who have the most strategic needs may not have the ability to pay for the organization's products, or their projects end up low in priority.
If resources are not being deployed so as to focus on strategic business priorities, the payoff of the organization's products will be lower and key opportunities will be overlooked.
In this case, problems may be found at two levels:
1. The allocation of budgets across client departments may not be aligned with business strategy. This usually occurs when an internal staff function budgets centrally for services (as opposed to chargebacks).
2. Within their allocated spending limits, priorities may not be aligned with clients' strategy. This generally occurs when client executives are not actively involved in priority-setting.
In either case, those with the best opportunities will not buy, and the organization will do work for people who buy lower-payoff projects.
