What Drives Change? Three Inescapable Shifts that Will Rock Your World
By Gerhard Gschwandtner
(reposted from http://sellingpower.typepad.com/gg/2010/02/what-drives-change.html)
I just got an interesting book called Selling Change by Brett Clay.
Here is my view on change.
The first question is “what drives change?” Ideas, money and technology. The first two are obvious. Internet technology creates new ways of sharing, communicating, collaborating and conducting business. It’s almost like learning a new language that demands a lot of mental agility from those who want to speak it well.
The second question is “what are the major shifts in the world of selling?”
I see three that are inescapable.
One is the shift from the delay economy to conducting business in real time. Customers want solutions NOW. Salespeople need to have access to all the information they need to answer all customer concerns in one call – without delay.
Two is the shift from pitching prospects on our solution to co-creating the solution together with the prospects. The pitch is dead. Ditch the pitch. Technology has created the conversation driven economy.
Three, Every aspect of information technology is in transition. We are moving from servers in a box to cloud computing. Scientists are working on a technology called “suspend and resume” that will allow users make any browser the gateway to our information universe in the cloud. Instead of using a pc like a physical fortress, we will have access to our software and our files online.
Since IT is in constant transition, the economy will be in constant transition and that requires that we give up the idea of pursuing rigid goals, we have to give up rigid business models, we need to embrace new sales processes faster. The economy has become fluid and we have to transition from rigid to fluid. We need to let go of the notion that we will ever get to any fixed point in our lifetime, the best thing we can hope for is to become more agile so we can avoid becoming a victim of change and become masters at successful transitions. Change is like a wave and we need to learn how to surf it. Agility is the new ROI.
Read Gerhard’s Blog: http://sellingpower.typepad.com/gg/2010/02/what-drives-change.html
The idea of moving from rigid to fluid goals and business models is a tough pill for most companies and people to swallow. But, Gerhard is right. Once people let go of the notion of “fixed” and focus on their agility they’ll be far more successful in today’s business environment.
An analogy is that people need to think of themselves as surfers or downhill skiers who move and adapt to stay balanced while the terrain moves underneath. …The pill can’t be that tough–last I heard, people pay a lot of money for the privilege and enjoyment of those activities!