The one thing were absolutely certain about in the market place today is change it’s all around us.
I remember once giving a joint presentation with one of our clients – they had managed to negotiate their way onto a tender list for a prestigious project.
Their business had only been going for two years and really you could have questioned whether they had the infrastructure, systems and experience to deliver on the promise.
However, the potential major client liked the proposal and we made it through to the final three the presentation. The Managing Director called me asking for help on how he should approach the meeting.
After detailed discussions it was apparent the key objection to utilising my client was going to be their track record and lack of experience.
We had to turn this to our advantage. I agreed to go and do the presentation with the Managing Director actually let me just change over that word presentation to demonstration. I have a firm view you don’t sell through presentation you sell through demonstration.
Only a change of word and slight shift in the mind set however so powerful in practice.
Demonstrate to your clients why you should be the partner or supplier of choice demonstrate the benefits of your products and services use case studies, testimonials, real examples to bring your demonstration to life and most importantly speak from the heart not the head.
We really wanted to grab their attention at the start of the demonstration we needed them to be fully engaged in the process.
We created a slide a picture of a tug boat with an oil tanker alongside it.
As part of my opening to the group we brought up the slide and speaking from the heart, with passion and enthusiasm launched into our well rehearsed demonstration.
There are a number of other companies who you could choose to partner with on this exciting project however, let me demonstrate why we believe we should be your partner of choice.
We liken our essay writing service to the tug boat. We are fast, we are dynamic we can change direction quickly we are constantly leading from the front in fact, the leading innovators within our industry.
What we are not is the oil tanker large staid – being lead and only able to integrate change slowly because it takes miles to change course and turn.
Our absolute focus and tenets of our philosophy is centred around delivering a phenomenal client experience – and that is what I’d like to demonstrate for you today how precisely we are going to do this in partnership with you.
They loved it and no surprise our client won the contract.
So what are some of the ideas we can take from this story
Well Perhaps the first is this – Having tug boat thoughts
It does not matter whether your business is large or small you constantly need to be thinking like a tug boat having tug boat thoughts embracing and hunting out change knowing it’s here to stay – living on the edge constantly innovating and by so doing gaining the edge over your competitors.
What are the innovations within your market place? What are the current trends and perhaps most importantly what are the future trends? If you went forward 5 years 10 years even 20 years in your mind how would you market your industry operate? What would it look like?
Then having those tug boat thoughts how do you effect that change NOW TODAY how can you be perceived as the leading authority the visionary of change within your industry?
One of the things I do every year in my business is to imagine it/s my first day? I’ve just taken over and I’m walking in for the first time just like the snake which sheds it’s entire skin every year. I put on the change jacket!
What would I do on first day? What would I change? Is my business moving like the tug boat embracing change or is it more like the oil tanker? It’s amazing how quickly we can take on extra loads and loose direction and miss the new currents and winds of change if were not open and looking for them.
Perhaps you could do this in your business in January too?
Sometimes we get so close to our businesses to our careers – our work environments we become blinkered. Were too busy working. In it to take the time to work on it.
What do I mean by working on it? Coining the Americans expression thinking outside the box. Looking at our lives and businesses from a funnel prospective as oppose to a tunnel prospective.
Lifting our heads out of the forests of life and looking above the tree line. Making time to have the reality checker as to where we you are today after all that’s reality. However what’s most important is where you are going and we can only do this effectively when we make time to create the vision and lay out the clear pathway to success and then of course having tug boat thoughts
I have a series of daily focused questions I ask myself one of those being. What is going to be my tug boat thought for today?
Recognise change is here to stay make it your friend – embrace it in all areas of your life business and personal summarised aptly in this expression:
The essence of change? Learn to embrace change and you’ll begin to recognise that life is in constant motion and every change happens for a reason when you see boundaries as opportunities the world becomes a limitless place and your life becomes a journey of change that always finds it s way.