IF YOU ARE ABSOLUTELY 100% SURE
THAT YOU ARE KEEPING UP WITH CHANGING TIMES —
YOU ARE ABSOLUTELY 100% SURE TO LEARN (THE HARD WAY)
THAT YOU ARE WRONG.
“When you’re finished changing, you’re finished.”
– Benjamin Franklin.
Everything changes.
Yep – that’s a cliché, but because it’s a cliché we sometimes need to be reminded of how true it is.
In sales and marketing communications, if you have ever said to yourself or others…
“We’ve always done it this way!”
…you have created a humungous problem.
That problem is you.
Not only is the world of sales and marketing communications changing at a dizzying pace; those changes are amplified to a deafening level by interlinking generational and technological changes that are radicalizing the basics of how good business is practiced.
To do things how you’ve always done them is to invite disaster.
Just one example:
For many years, in most industries, market research showed that what was most important to customers was, in order of priority:
• Price
• Quality
• Availability
Within the past 3-5 years that has changed (as proven by repeated studies) to:
• Availability
• Price
• Quality
That fact changes the entire dynamic of communicating with customers and prospects because it underscores a fundamental shift in what buyers value in a relationship. Although the “human face” of business remains of true significance, today’s customer is just as likely to NOT want to know you, or talk with you, or be your loyal friend. That customer is much more likely not to care who you are or where you are, as long as you perform as promised and deliver on-time.
Interestingly, the ways that many businesses communicate are based on a history that has passed them by. What worked yesterday does not necessarily work today. Because you have done something one way for decades does not automatically make it effective in the here-and-now.
Recommendations:
Ask the “What if?” questions that will cause you to challenge everything you believe to be true. Put everything to the test. Treat nothing as sacred unless it has been proven to work in today’s marketplace.
And…
…look for specialized resources who can help you. The changes that are taking place in sales and marketing communications are so numerous, sometimes so subtle, sometimes so complex, that it is not possible to manage and successfully use them unless that is your business. Do not waste your time struggling or pretending to be experts in such things — you have better things to do and highly experienced pros are waiting to help you.
