An inability to change is bad for business.



Mary B’s Family Buffet closed down last week. This place had been a near institution in my town, having come around when the “buffet-style” eatery was born.

Back then we called them cafeterias, but that name faded about the time that shopping centers got renamed as strip malls. (Sort of like hobos became homeless and getting fired became downsizing, except those phrases conveniently shift responsibility. Discuss.)

This place just fell out of favor, failed to change. I’m fairly certain that at least one of its baked potatoes had been there since opening in 1964. I’m positive a couple waitresses - and their hairdos - were original. Yet so too was the décor, the menu, the “cattle call” feel of eating there.

Plus another thing never changed: its patrons. It was routine, in the best and worst ways. As customers’ average age approached “deceased,” tables no longer filled. Groups of five dwindled to tables of two. Multiple table turns became singles … on a good day. Dinner went from a bustling nighttime family occasion to a late afternoon salt-free and mostly flavorless event. You could tell this from the outside looking in.

Not changing sounds safe, yet it is the riskiest of all business propositions, and a complete illusion to the practitioners. It is the precursor to certain demise.

It’s funny. Change frightens most of us, but “new and improved” are the best-selling words in advertising, have been for eons. There’s an important distinction here that will help you sell more, in any environment, at any time, to anybody. Ignore this principle and you too can become the forgotten baked potato of contracting.

What is the distinction?

Wemay not embrace personal change readily, but we expect and pay for change in the things we buy, own and use. The reason is the same: Don’t makemechange if this has done the changing for me. For example, post-Depression era training seminars for businesspeople were about “advancement” of the employed downtrodden to the eager employee ready to “move up.”

Then this new star had to actually fit in, so the advancee had to be able to communicate, thus Toastmasters and the like was the rage. Soon, the Toastmasters could speak well enough, but lacked confidence to “do.” The self-actualization of the ’70s helped people meet a job task with confidence. (Bear with me, this discourse is about to hit you in the face.)

By the ’80s, this false confidence was deemed impotent (at best) and Personal Power emerged, mostly out of the Erhard Seminars Training (developed by Werner Erhard) and neuro-linguistic programming (Tony Robbins is its most famous spokesperson). The “you can do it if you see yourself doing it” and mental power over obstacles enlightened nearly 20 million people to buy the Personal Power audio training series. Self-help exploded with product. Keep that word in mind.

By the ’90s, we were exhausted from doing it ourselves. The motivation and self-actualization mantras waned; we just wanted someone to do most of it for us. “Kits” and “packaged solutions” were born. (Hudson, Ink’s formative years were about kits.)

You could Deal-A-Meal your way to weight loss, you could lie on the Ab Roller and get a washboard stomach, you could stick on a patch and quit smoking … willpower be darned.

Now we’re fully into the “just do it for me” zone. We want personal trainers who’ll do everything but actually lift the weights for us. (I guess that’s next.) Instead of teaching me the principles of sales mastery, I want a sales coach in my ear, telling me what to say to each prospect. Better yet if you just come with me, close the sale and give me credit. Millions upon millions of dollars are spent on coaches - and deservedly for the good ones - to “un-stick” us from our complacency to where we started this…

Change.

The rule is that either you will change or the world will change for you. And if you haven’t picked up on it, the “mass” behavior hasn’t changed an iota. Sure, each stage sounded like a solution, but throughout are the “changed” and the “unchanged.” The money flows from the second group to the first group. Happens every time.

The cool thing is that just realizing this can change your money flow. 

Pondering and productivity

Actually doing the steps takes you to change. Yet most don’t. They sit, they wait to be changed, they wait for the crowd to come back. They wait, and eventually turn the “Open” sign the other way around.

You know the names. Sears Holdings. Borders. Blockbuster. OfficeMax. Pier 1. And now that includes Mary B’s Homestyle Buffet. Those who don’t change, get changed.

You need to take action:

  • If you’ve been “thinking about” getting better at something for the last few years, look around. My guess is others had the same idea and a few did it. So, your thinking is great, but your implementation may be lacking. Get a coach and follow the advice.

  • If you’ve “wondered about” online marketing, or retention marketing, or consultive selling, or contractor publicity but didn’t know where to turn, your curiosity is asking the right question. But incomplete research has become an excuse for you. We keep a list of “hot” advisors in almost every topic related to contractor sales and marketing. Doesn’t matter to me where you get help as long as you’re willing to change for the better.

  • If you’ve had a “nagging concern” about any topic in your business related to change, your subconscious has dropped that on you for a reason. It is trying to get your attention. Seek those who have been through this same challenge because they love to tell the story of how they changed and beat it.

    It has been said you can tell the age of a man by measuring his resistance to change. I say you can equally foretell his proclivity for business irrelevance by the same measure.

    Get out of the buffet line. A feast awaits those willing to change.


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