by Francine Carb, President

My dog Oreo has some crazy facial expressions, so I thought it best that he pose for this issue about insanity. I think we all know the businessperson’s definition of insanity: doing the same thing over and over again, and expecting a different result. While we all chuckle a little when we hear that, I’m going to suggest that all of you business people take a good look in the mirror. How many of you send your salespeople out to the same prospects over and over again and wonder why they can’t close a single piece of new business? Or direct your prospects to take a look at your website for more information, yet there’s been nothing added for years? Or ask your marketing department why there are no new leads from the same trade show you’ve been attending over and over again? Now that’s truly insane.

So what is it about human nature that causes this behavior? People don’t like to change. We like to keep things the way they are, stick with the familiar, and don’t rock the boat, by any means. Well that’s OK if you don’t mind going backwards. Because if you don’t move forward, change, and take initiative; by definition, you’re already behind.

What Is Standing In Your Way?

What else hinders progress? Fear of spending money…or more accurately stated, wasting money. So let me get this right, in my example of the salesperson going out to the same prospects over and over again, you’re paying him or her what? At least $80K plus benefits and travel expenses, so over $100K per year—and that’s not a waste of money?

My suggestion is to have the executive team do that function (that of staying in contact with clients)—and likely perform it expertly and better. I’m all for great sales people, but please focus them on NEW business opportunities and closely monitor your pipeline and their progress. What about fear of marketing expenses? True, marketing investments cost money. But what are you losing if your website is not on a responsive platform or if it lacks SEO, and therefore cannot be found by Google—likely quite a few opportunities and the confidence of ‘under 40’ decision makers! So now you’re losing business because the only people who can find your website are those who already know the URL. And how many people would that be?

What if you start a case study marketing program and highlight your successes with storytelling and meaningful content? Of course you’ll need to pay for someone to interview your customers, do the write-ups, design the piece, and custom program it for dissemination. But what might you gain from that? In other words, what’s the ROI? If one case study resulted in 3 meaningful opportunities, would that be worth it? How about 5 or 10 opportunities? In the B2B world, any investment of let’s say $5K that results in three $100,000 opportunities, and one closed piece of business, is quite good—don’t you think? Now multiply that times 10 case studies.

If inertia is frustrating you and your leadership team, contact the professionals at Markitects. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain.