All organizations make changes and at the time they are all changes for the good, or at least we think. Often times changes are spurred by activity such as customers’ reactions to a sales technique, an accident, or a new idea that someone read in a trade magazine. I am all for changes, especially for the betterment of an organization. However, when a change is made because of the exception versus the rule, the change is being made for the wrong reason.
For example, when a sales person (particularly a new one) goes on a sales call and fails, they typically come back with some sort of excuse as to why they didn’t make the sale. When that no-sale report comes back it is frequently accompanied by a suggestion as to how the process for making sales didn’t work and a way to make it ‘better.’ This can sound like a number of things:
- “She didn’t like that I told her all the features of it first, maybe we should move that to the end of the pitch”
- “He said he felt uncomfortable that I was in a suit, I think we should just wear polo shirts and khakis from now on”
- “She told me I was unprofessional because I didn’t use her first and last name when I introduced myself, should I start calling people by their full names?”
Now these may all be legitimate concerns depending on the line of work, but they are all more than likely the exception versus the rule. If these people went on 100 sales calls and 99 of them liked all the features at the beginning of the pitch, felt professional when they were in suits, and preferred being called by their first names, than the entire sales process doesn’t need to be changed just for 1 person out of 100! This is applicable to so many other industries and situations that it’s sickening. We watch huge organizations make enormous changes to their products that work great in favor of something that is an overreaction to 1 whiny customer who will never be satisfied no matter how accommodating we are to their needs.
Instead of letting that 1 customer go and focusing on perfecting their product/process/service, many organizations will have a panic attack and change up what they’re doing. In turn, risking the 99 others that were already satisfied with what them. Make pivots is crucial for an organization that wants to grow, but changes for the wrong reasons can stifle growth and take organizations away from the things that made the successful in the first place.
As with anything, there are exceptions to this rule, but I’m not going to change this post for them because that would be silly, there will always be dissenters. Have a great weekend!
