I have to admit to being a little bit more than impatient–my wife says I have to be more tolerant. But there are conversations that just drive me up the wall—-”We’ll just wait it out” is one of those conversations that drives me crazy.
Over the past couple of years, I’ve heard that about the economy, “Things will get back to normal, we’ll have to wait it out.” But I hear it about all sorts of thing—major changes within a company; we don’t have the right products now, but new products are around the corner; our customer is going to let things settle down; changes with the way our customers buy—-the list goes on.
Underlying this statement is the assumption that things will go back to normal, if we just wait, the “good old times” will return.
Frankly, it’s a defeatist attitude. How long have we been repeating the maxim, “the only constant is change?” But it’s accurate. Business is about change—as sales professionals, we are driving our customers to change. We can take different positions about change–whether our organizations are driving change, whether we respond to it, but if we don’t change, we will be left behind.
This impacts us as individuals, as well. We have to constantly change, learn, and grow. Our companies, products, competitors, and customers are changing. If we sit around to wait for thing to get back to normal, we will be left behind forever.
I think Fleetwood Mac had it right:
Don’t stop thinking about tomorrow,
Don’t stop, it’ll soon be here,
It’ll be, better than before
Yesterday’s gone, yesterday’s gone.
Dave: Could we be holding conversations with the same individuals? Or, are there many who are too fearful to decide? If you go with the latter, it’s evidence that there could be billions of dollars in wasted business opportunities out there. It’s easy to get impatient with people who won’t move off the dime–I do too. And some people will never move. I don’t feel it’s my job to sell them on the merits of making strategic decisions. But I can show them the risks their intransigence create. One model I use is Porter’s Five Forces, which many people are familiar with, but often don’t think of in the context of their own business RIGHT NOW. In addition, I like the quote I recently read from the CEO of Intel that it’s a lot easier to change when you can than when you have to.