That's a policy that Scott Grams said is employed at Red River, a Reston, Va.-based solution provider that won one of CRN's prestigious Triple Crown Awards. Grams, Red River’s director of marketing, said company leadership always challenges the staff to think of "what could be" and "what's the best," and to innovate toward that goal.

"We all need to innovate and change," Grams said. "You're not always going to achieve what's the best, but it's always good to do. The minute you lower your expectations, you're always going to achieve less, so always shoot for the moon."

A company that has also done this well is Tough Mudder, Gutsche said. When looking at marathon runners, the company’s founder realized that runners are looking for the completion and the thrill of the challenge, not necessarily win the number one spot. In creating a race focused on completion, rather than timing, Tough Mudder was able to grow from zero to $70 million in just two years.

On the other hand, it’s easy for companies to miss the opportunity right in front of them if they’re distracted by the competition and aren't asking tough questions of their businesses, Gutsche said. For example, he said Google was so focused in 2007 on beating Facebook that it didn't ask questions on why people were flocking to social media. By asking those questions about photo sharing, information sharing and instant updates, other founders were able to find astronomical success with Instagram, Twitter and Snapchat, he said.

While this may sound daunting, Gutsche said that positioning a business to be more like a hunter than a farmer doesn't have to mean throwing out the entire business model. He suggested focusing 10 percent of the overall business on innovation and adaptation. From there, he said solution providers in the audience could focus on "little wins" to push the business forward over time, not necessarily a "big eureka moment." Those small changes can add up to big wins, he said.