---
title: Can You Be Indispensable?
description: The nature of competitive markets and changing environments means that you have to work hard – often extremely hard – to maintain that status, but if you continue to practice the rules that got you there, you can stay there.
image: https://www.liftenablement.com/hs-fs/file-363404610-png/blog-files/indispensable-135x300.png
---

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# Can You Be Indispensable?

[ Doug Davidoff ](https://www.liftenablement.com/blog/author/doug-davidoff)  Jun 21, 2010 3:00:37 AM

[![](https://www.liftenablement.com/hs-fs/file-363404610-png/blog-files/indispensable-135x300.png?width=168&height=450&name=indispensable-135x300.png "Indispensable")](http://thefastgrowthblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/Indispensable.png)My post on Wednesday focused in on the importance of [understanding your customer’s business model](https://blog.imaginellc.com/the-most-important-thing-to-know-in-sales) to develop a selling proposition that can make you indispensable.

For three years now, I’ve been speaking around the country talking with CEOs and salespeople evangelizing the idea that in a world where discretionary budgets have all but disappeared, the only sustainable strategy for long-term business growth is to become non-discretionary or indispensable. For three years, no one disagreed with me.

Then Wednesday I got a tweet in response to my post from [Arié Moyal](http://twitter.com/amoyal) saying that there was no such thing as indispensable. This led to the conversation you can see on the left.

The conversation got me thinking – is [@amoyal](http://twitter.com/amoyal) right? So I went to dictionary.com and looked up the definition - absolutely necessary, essential, or requisite.

My short answer is a clear “yes.” While indispensability is not a permanent status, nor is it an entitlement, it can be achieved and maintained.

When you make [The Shift](https://blog.imaginellc.com/the-shift-what-do-you-sell) from selling “stuff” to selling results, you can become absolutely necessary. The nature of competitive markets and changing environments means that you have to work hard – often extremely hard – to maintain that status, but if you continue to practice the rules that got you there, you can stay there.

What do you think? How do you attain indispensable status?

[B2B Sales Strategy](https://www.liftenablement.com/blog/topic/b2b-sales-strategy), [Sales](https://www.liftenablement.com/blog/topic/sales)

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