The Problem: Are you a must-Have or a nice-to-have? Too many businesses struggle with the same issue: they aren’t essential.
Customers buy from them when it’s convenient, but when budgets tighten, they’re the first to get cut. If a competitor offers a slightly cheaper, newer, or shinier option, they switch. Worse, if the business disappeared tomorrow, few would notice.
If that sounds harsh, it’s because it is. But it’s also fixable.
The brands that thrive—through market downturns, industry shifts, and evolving customer expectations—position themselves as indispensable. They don’t just sell products or services; they solve urgent, recurring problems that customers can’t ignore.
At Fastmarkit, we see this play out constantly in B2B. Companies that lack a reliable demand generation system feel the pain immediately:
- Leads slow down
- Sales teams struggle
- Revenue stalls
That’s why we don’t position ourselves as just another marketing agency—we build growth engines that keep our clients’ pipelines full. They don’t just want us; they need us.
So, how do you make your business essential?
It starts by answering three key questions:
- When do customers feel like they absolutely need you?
- Are you part of their ongoing workflow or just a one-time transaction?
- If you disappeared tomorrow, would they actually miss you?
Let’s break it down.
The Difference Between an Essential vs. Optional Business
An optional business is one that:
- Customers can live without
- Gets deprioritized when budgets shrink
- Competes primarily on price rather than value
Think about the last time you canceled a subscription, switched service providers, or put off a purchase. The common thread? It wasn’t solving a problem urgent enough to keep it in your life.
What Makes a Business Essential?
An essential business is one that:
- Solves a recurring, painful problem
- Becomes embedded in the customer’s daily workflow
- Creates real, measurable impact (so removing it feels like a loss)
Example from Fastmarkit:
Companies without a reliable demand generation engine immediately feel the pain.
→ Leads slow down → Sales teams struggle → Revenue stalls.
That’s why we don’t position ourselves as a marketing agency—we are a revenue system that companies depend on to grow.
Your next steps:
✅ Audit your business: If your customers stopped using your product/service, what would they lose?
✅ Look for dependency points: Are there areas where customers rely on you daily or monthly? If not, how can you create that?
✅ Ask your customers: “What would happen if you stopped using our service?” Their answer will tell you whether you’re essential or optional.
When Do Customers Feel Like They Absolutely Need You?
If you can’t pinpoint the exact moments when your product or service becomes a necessity, you’re not positioned for high demand.
Customers don’t buy just because something is nice to have—they buy because they have to.
Why This Matters
Your ideal customers have trigger points—specific moments when they go from “interested” to “I need this now.” If you don’t know what those moments are, you’ll struggle to create urgency in your marketing and sales process.
How to Apply This to Your Business
Ask yourself:
✅ What pain points make customers start searching for a solution?
✅ What specific frustrations or risks push them to act?
✅ What happens if they don’t solve the problem?
Example from Fastmarkit:
Companies come to us when:
- Their pipeline is drying up and they need consistent lead flow
- Their outbound efforts are outdated and they see competitors using AI automation to book more meetings
- Their marketing efforts are generating clicks, not revenue
These are high-pressure pain points that demand a solution. We don’t just offer a service—we solve a problem that is already costing them money.
Your next steps:
Talk to your customers. Ask them:
→ “What was happening in your business when you realized you needed our solution?”
→ “What made you finally decide to take action?”
Look for patterns. What common frustrations, inefficiencies, or risks push people to buy?
Make these moments a core part of your messaging. Position your service as the direct solution to an urgent problem.
Example: Instead of saying “We help businesses with demand generation,” we say “We help businesses fix broken lead flow so their pipeline never runs dry.”
When you understand what makes your customers need you, you stop competing for attention—you become the solution they’re actively looking for.
Are You Part of a Ritual or Just a One-Time Purchase?
If your business is a one-time fix, you’ll always be chasing new customers.
If your business is part of a recurring process, you become indispensable.
The most valuable businesses aren’t just purchased once—they’re embedded into customers’ daily or monthly workflows.
- Transactional businesses rely on repeat sales and constant new customer acquisition.
- Integrated businesses become part of how their customers operate—leading to higher retention, greater lifetime value, and long-term growth.
Ask yourself:
- Are customers using your product/service as an ongoing part of their work or life?
- Does your offering naturally lead to repeat usage or ongoing reliance?
- If not, how can you structure it so they depend on it regularly?
Here’s an example from my company, Fastmarkit:
Instead of offering one-off marketing campaigns, we build AI-powered demand generation systems that:
- Continuously source and nurture leads
- Reduce the need for manual prospecting
- Keep sales teams fed with qualified opportunities
Our clients don’t just buy a service—they integrate a system that keeps working for them, every single day.
Your next steps:
- Audit your business: Does your offering fit into a recurring workflow?
- Productize ongoing value: If you offer consulting, shift from a single engagement to a strategy + execution package.
- Create a retention loop: Design your service so customers get more value the longer they stay.
When your business becomes part of the process, not just a purchase, customers don’t just come back—they never leave.
If You Disappeared Tomorrow, What Would Customers Miss?
Here’s a hard truth: If your customers wouldn’t even notice if you shut down, your business isn’t essential—it’s replaceable.
If your business doesn’t provide a unique and deeply valuable outcome, customers can easily switch to a competitor—or worse, decide they don’t need a solution at all.
The businesses that thrive long-term are the ones that:
- Solve a mission-critical problem
- Deliver a unique process, framework, or system that can’t be easily replicated
- Provide such a high level of convenience, expertise, or efficiency that customers wouldn’t dream of leaving
Ask yourself:
- If you vanished overnight, what painful gap would be left for your customers?
- Would their operations slow down or revenue take a hit?
- Would they have to rebuild internal processes to replace you?
Now take Fastmarkit, for an example, if we disappeared, here’s what would happen to our clients:
- Their primary lead flow would dry up
- Their sales pipeline would shrink
- Their teams would go back to manual prospecting, putting them at a disadvantage against competitors using AI-powered automation
Our clients don’t just work with us because they like us—they rely on us because their business growth depends on it.
Your next steps:
- Define the exact consequences of your absence. What’s the worst-case scenario for customers if they lose access to your product/service?
- Make those consequences clear in your messaging. Use case studies, testimonials, and real-world data to show your impact.
- Refine your offering to deliver deeper, harder-to-replace value. If your customers can swap you out with minimal friction, rethink your positioning.
Instead of just providing a tool or service, create an ecosystem—a combination of software, automation, expertise, and continuous optimization that customers can’t easily replicate elsewhere.
When your customers can’t imagine operating without you, you’re no longer just a vendor—you’re a business necessity.
How to Shift from “Nice-to-Have” to “Must-Have”
At this point, you’ve identified whether your business is essential or optional—but what if you’re still in the “nice-to-have” category?
The key to making the shift is to stop positioning yourself as a vendor and start positioning yourself as an integrated solution that solves a recurring pain point. More importantly,
- Stop selling features—sell the consequences of not having you.
- Don’t market yourself as a service provider—become an extension of your customer’s success.
- The question isn’t “how do I make customers buy?”—it’s “how do I make customers depend on me?”
Articulate the exact problem you prevent or solve in a way that makes inaction feel risky. Use this simple formula:
✔ Without [your business], [your customer’s key function] will [specific negative outcome].
Examples:
- Without Fastmarkit, B2B companies’ demand generation efforts become unpredictable, forcing sales teams to waste time chasing unqualified leads.
- Without a structured onboarding system, new hires will struggle to ramp up, leading to lower productivity and higher turnover.
- Without AI-powered customer support, response times will slow down, frustrating customers and leading to higher churn.
Now, apply this to your business:
✔ Without [your product/service], [what critical function suffers?] → [what’s the consequence?]
If you struggle to fill in that blank, your offer may still be in the “nice-to-have” zone.
Your next steps:
- Identify your customers’ biggest recurring problems.
→ What issues never go away for them? What problem are they constantly trying to solve? - Build long-term solutions, not just one-time services.
→ If you offer consulting, package it with ongoing strategy and execution.
→ If you sell software, integrate ongoing optimizations, support, or automation that customers rely on. - Focus your messaging on urgency and impact.
→ Show customers exactly what happens if they don’t take action.
→ Instead of “We help companies generate more leads,” say “Without a predictable demand gen system, your sales pipeline will become unreliable, making it harder to hit revenue targets.”
When your customers believe they can’t afford to lose you, you stop selling and start leading.
Conclusion: Future-Proofing Your Business
Net net, the companies that thrive aren’t just offering products or services—they’re solving recurring, high-impact problems in a way that customers can’t ignore.
Recap: The Three Key Questions to Make Your Business Essential
- When do customers feel like they absolutely need you?
→ Identify the trigger moments that push buyers to take action. - Are you part of their workflow or just a one-time purchase?
→ Embed yourself into their daily or recurring processes. - If you disappeared tomorrow, what would customers miss?
→ Define what would break down or suffer without you.
Future-proofing your business starts now. The companies that embed themselves into customer workflows and solve mission-critical pain points will always thrive.
Want Help Making Your Business a Must-Have?
At Fastmarkit, we specialize in building AI-powered demand generation systems that companies rely on to keep their pipeline full and sales teams focused on closing.
If you’re ready to stop relying on inconsistent lead flow and want a system that works on autopilot, let’s talk.
