I’m Not Waiting for “Back To Normal”

THE NEW NORM

My Coronavirus start date began the week of March 9th. reviewing my calendar, I had a couple of face 2 face meetings planned in two separate cities and one of the people reporting to me took vacation. Pretty much a normal week.

In my “New Norm”, as everyone describes it, I have been in my office for more time during the day than ever before in my 25 plus year career of traveling almost every week. That was the “Norm” for my family and me. For some additional insight into this life changing event, it has not been a change only for me but for those closest me. My grown children, granddaughter, dog, and yes, my wife. Now for those of you that know me well, I am certain you would say that I am easy going and lots of fun, a lot of fun to be around. So extending that amount of time with me to full time now would logically to me seem to be excellent, right? I will save most all of the descriptive comments from those closest to me for a later conversation however; this was definitely a significant change for all of those that were used to having me travel a lot. :)

When news of the virus began to pick up steam in the news broadcasts life changed for all of us, some more than others, those conversations began to either start or end with “we can’t wait to get back to normal”. If you really stop to consider this, do any of us think this will happen? I do not. Back to normal would be as if nothing ever actually happened, when it certainly has.

I’m not waiting for “Back to Normal, I can’t. It’s not in my nature or way that I think. I'm not saying it is easy, just necessary.

If you think about it, Changing is “normal” it happens all the time, every day, we just don’t always recognize it or notice it until we pause and watch.

Seasons, kids, parents, environments, automobiles, tools, activities, football, friends, employees, business, big corporations, small business, etc... You get the point I’m sure. Change happens, sometimes with or without you.

At one point, I thought the statement, “Change happens, what are you going to do about it?” was right but after some thought about how much of an open question that was it occurred to me that maybe more appropriately, "Change happens, how will you react to it?" This might be a better way to think about it.

CHANGE or ADVANCE, which do you choose?

Sometimes or maybe most times, the natural reaction to change is kicking, and screaming resistance, or some form of this. When my very strong willed younger children did not want to make changes to their routines as they grew up, they would literally kick, scream, and resist! Then they would be subject to that character building “Time-out” process, what a great parenting skill. Somehow my wife and I, mainly my wife, managed through this. They seriously still have strong wills but the time-out does not work anymore.

During some periods of my adult professional career, I believe I probably had occurrences where internally I was kicking and screaming due to a change. It happens in all of us in some form or another.

The realization is this, “Change Will Happen, How Will You React to It?” This is the challenge we face. 

If we begin to think about our reaction to change rather than worrying about the change itself this can be transforming. We can move our emotional and functional energies from the feeling of “something has happened to me” and on to “I am going to focus energies past that and onto advancing”.

Advancing means “to move forward, to proceed”. It is a progressive step or an improvement made. That is our “New Norm”, and to be honest, I’m excited about it! Or… Getting excited about it.

Let me put some perspective around this for you. Think about the last time you went on vacation. Your entire schedule and routine changed. You went from “normal” to “vacation normal”. Or if you are blessed with a newborn, your routine changes form “normal" to "never sleeping again normal." If you have ever had to move from one home to another, maybe in different states, you move from “normal" to a "new normal". The end game is you don’t go back. In all of these life-impacting situations, the end game is this; you never go back to “normal”.

Advancing Your Business

Your sales territory, account list, market or segment or whatever you’re accountable for is your business. In an accountability paradigm, you own it.

The expectation of yourself if you are the owner or by your company is growth. Growth over prior year or growth over plan or target or some KPI measurement. No matter what the measure or starting point is, the minimum expectation is to meet it, however beating it is much sweeter for sure.

Everyone wants growth and usually the conversations develop to some statement of I am going to grow this account or market or segment, etc… Just for granular thinking, growth is not the action rather it is the output or result. "Deliver Growth" is usually the statement from your boss or your expectation of yourself. But this is like telling the Starbucks barista I want a Grande, latte, with extra espresso. Both are the result, it is what you get. Not what you do.

Advancing is what you do. Growth is the results.

Let’s talk about advancing the customer relationship. As a career salesperson, your daily activities have included some of the following but not limited to:

Prospecting, Managing orders, Lunch Meetings, Weekend entertaining, Learning new products, Defending price, Scheduling meetings, Strategic account planning, Raising price, Late dinner meetings, Preparing for meetings, Negotiations, Presenting solutions, Early breakfast meetings, Presenting options, Entertainment events, Delivering product, Confirming order delivery, need I say Etc...

Some, if not all of this, can easily occur in the first two to three hours of your day. Right? Moreover, in some cases it may seem very difficult to simply satisfy your customer let alone create a loyal one.

There are many activities you do as salesperson, some productive some, admittedly, maybe not so much. You are also always ‘On” and looking for that next opportunity or sale. Doing this all the time was your “Norm”. Like it not, that has changed. 

• Face to face, meetings have changed. How will you advance? 
• Lunch meeting have been canceled. How will you advance? 
• Presenting value propositions has shifted. How will you advance?
• Team selling has changed. How will you advance?
• The methods for understanding the unstated needs of your customers has changed. How will you advance?

All of these and other selling activities lead to growth. Growth of sales, growth of margins, growth of EBIT, PTPI, ROS, or whatever measure you want to use. Growth is the result or output. Advancing is what you do. If you consider this shift in thinking, you can identify specific advancing actions you might develop to achieve the growth within your accounts, segments or markets, you may describe this as your “targets” It becomes less overwhelming.

So what can you do now to advance?

Prepare, learn, do the research about your targets, specific planning by target. Review all that you are doing now. Remove inefficiencies. Look for the small advancements in your targets. It may be to get through five calls to determine the real decision maker. It could be simply to get the name of the gatekeeper and develop some type of professional relationship.

I recognize all of this is basic however today; trying to do what you used to do with no change in methodology may not produce the growth you need to be successful. I appreciate you time and hope this provoked some thought.

Stay safe, stay positive, support each other, continue to be a solution provider and continue to advance!

Scott