Today’s newsletter, Recalibration, suggests that you “Stop Tweaking and Start Recalibrating.”
Don’t hunker down! Make real changes, in a world that is really different.
Please share your comments below.
The world has been reset.
Are you recalibrating the way you run your business and do your work to adjust to this new reality?
Frustrated that your customers, and prospects can’t make decisions?
Just about everyone I talk to who has customers shares this frustration. Economic uncertainty has translated itself into decision-making paralysis. People should buy, but they just can’t make the leap to do it.
Check out what Friedrich Nietzsche had to say in The Birth of Tragedy, written in 1872:
“For the rapture of the Dionysian state with its annihilation of the ordinary bounds and limits of existence contains, while it lasts, a lethargic element in which all personal experiences of the past become immersed. This chasm of oblivion separates the worlds of everyday reality and of Dionysian reality. But as soon as this everyday reality re-enters consciousness, it is experienced as such, with nausea: an ascetic, will-negating mood is the fruit of these states.”
Wow. For years we’ve lived in an unreal, Dionysian world. (Dionysian can be defined as being “of an ecstatic, orgiastic or irrational nature; frenzied or undisciplined.) Now that “everyday reality re-enters consciousness,” people feel a “will-negating” nausea, that prevents them from acting.
Recognize that it is this nausea, borne of the shell-shock of learning that our recent world is one of make-believe, that has paralyzed your customers and prospective customers. To unfreeze your customers, you need to be the Pepto-Bismol that quiets their nausea; confidence and certainty are the best antidotes to stomach-churning uncertainty. Help your customers get comfortable with the new reality, and help them jettison their emotional connections with the old order.
As I have written lately, this is not a recession, it is a recalibration. Resetting your world is nauseating and discomforting. It freezes people. Help your customers recognize that the new order is the real order, and help them avoid the disappointments of the lost past. It really never existed. (e.g., the lost money in your 401K never really existed.)
Nietzsche goes on to compare the Dionysian man to Hamlet, our most famous frozen decision maker who could not act. (I pulled this passage from Harold Bloom’s Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human, on page 393. The orbit of the Hamlet-obsession comet has once again returned to me.) Bloom’s and Nietzsche’s point is not that Hamlet couldn’t decide because he was confused by the information that confronted him, but that he knew his situation too well. “An insight into the horrible truth outweighs any motive for action,” Nietzsche writes. Your customer may not have just learned that his uncle killed his father, as Hamlet learned, but he certainly shares with Hamlet the knowledge that his world will for evermore be different.
Ok, so your customers are nauseated by this “insight into the horrible truth.” Recognize it for what it is, and calm them down. That’s how you’ll unfreeze them.
Yes, this means that selling has become a totally new thing. If you’re not selling differently, you’re not helping your customers recalibrate their world, and you will find them staring back at you, mid-sales pitch, with the uncomfortable look of nausea.
Today’s edition of my bi-weekly newsletter is called Your Business’s Stimulus Plan. I’d love to read your comments here on this blog post.
If you don’t subscribe to the newsletter (and don’t receive a copy by email), please have a look at the link above.
So, whaddya think?
I recently wrote a post on tompeters.com called This is Not a Recession. I got a lot of response to it, and I wanted to repeat it here:
Don’t think of our current economic crisis as a recession. Instead, think of it as a recalibration.
Everything is different now.
If you think of it as a recession, you may be tempted to “hunker down” and wait for the economy to cycle back.
If you think of it as a recalibration, you will be motivated to focus on what you have to do differently, since everything is different now.
The way your business generates results is different, now.
Your customers think differently, now.
Your customers care about different things, now.
Your customers act differently, now.
Your customers may actually be different people, now.
Customers aren’t disposable anymore; more than ever, you have to create sustainable customer relationships.
Everything is different now.
One thing I’m convinced of is that the world I am working in today is different from any world I have ever done business in. The world has been reset. We can no longer look at the “LY” column on reports to use last year as a benchmark for what will happen this year.
Let’s face it – a lot sucks these days. The economy is in the tank. People are freaking out about all sorts of things. People are losing their jobs and businesses are closing their doors.
I decided early on that I wasn’t about to take it lying down. As I’ve said in a number of previous posts (here, here, here and here) newsletters (here, here, here and here) and a teleseminar, in addition to many private conversations with clients and colleagues, the state of our businesses on 1/1/2010 has less to do with the Dow Jones average, the unemployment rate or the liquidity of the credit markets than it does with what we, personally, do to improve our situations. Yes, those macroeconomic factors hurt. Ok, now what are you going to do about it?
I’m happy to say that I’ve been taking my own medicine, built around the Six Recalibration Questions in my recent teleseminar. I feel completely energized, because this situation has forced me to come up with new ideas, engage with more people, create new programs, question my beliefs … among many other things. I can’t believe how much I’ve done already in January that I would not have done if things were rosy.
Yes, of course, I wish the economy were booming. But I’m not going to let an opportunity to live through something this intense go to waste. I am going to use it as a time to learn, create, engage, challenge myself and others, stretch, think, try new things, stop doing other things … etc.
One of my main themes is that this is not a recession, it’s a recalibration. Recessions imply cycles, and tempt us to wait for things to come back. Recalibration implies that we need to reset all of our expectations, strategies and actions. This is an incredible, however unwelcome, opportunity to do just that.
Cockroaches? (Ok, I’m in a provocative mood.)
We always imagine that after some sort of mega-disaster cockroaches will still survive to roam the earth, no matter what happens to us poor humans. We believe that they are resilient, and can’t be crushed.
You just watch. When our current economic mega-disaster is finally behind us, see who you’re still doing business with. Will it be those that you dealt with due to price, special offers, and exciting promotions? Or, will it be with those with whom you have cultivated strong “We” relationships?
Economic turmoil invites price slashing and rich promotions. But, like caffeine, the energy from these activities only lasts a little while, and then it disappears. No matter how bad the economy gets, no matter how much pain you suffer, your strong business relationships will prove their resilience, and will survive tough times. They can’t be crushed.
Outside forces can’t destroy a great relationship. In fact, tough times give you many opportunities to strengthen relationships. (Go ahead, try it.)
Steve’s 2009 Readiness Teleseminar was awesome! But I must say I feel bad. I received many emails from readers asking to be placed on the waitlist, disappointed that the teleseminar filled up before they could register.
Be sad no longer! We have a free download for all of those who missed the event or want to re-live it. There is an MP3 download of the hour-long teleseminar along with a PDF of the accompanying Learning Guide. Just follow the link:
Steve Yastrow’s 2009 Readiness Teleseminar
And for those of you who were lucky (or prepared) enough to get one of the 100 spots during the live event… what did you think? How will you use the Six Readiness questions to help your business in the upcoming year?
Today’s Survive or Thrive newsletter includes links to a free audio download and Learning Guide from my 2009 Readiness Teleseminar, conducted on January 9. The seminar filled up, and we received many emails from people who couldn’t enroll, so I’m offering the entire one-hour teleseminar to anyone who would like it.
Please listen, learn and share with your colleagues. This year will be tough, but you have many choices about what you do. Make the most of those choices.
The teleseminar focuses a lot on personal responsibility. For those of you who want to learn more about modern thinking on this topic, I highly recommend this lecture series from The Teaching Company, No Excuses: Existentialism and The Meaning of Life, by Professor Robert Solomon of the University of Texas – Austin. 12 hours very well spent. (Although if you’re like me you’ll hit rewind a lot and re-listen to key parts. This has always been one of my favorite areas of philosophy.)
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In addition to writing, I spend most of my work time helping companies unleash their potential by creating better connections with their customers. This happens through my speaking events and through Yastrow & Company consulting engagements, where my team and I help companies figure out who they intend to be in the future, and then engage the entire company in creating that future through strong "We" customer relationships.
Before starting Yastrow & Company in the mid-90s I was vice-president of resort marketing for Hyatt Hotels. My experiences in the hotel business showed me clearly that most marketing doesn’t happen in the marketing department. Customers are paying attention to all interactions with a company, not just the promises made in traditional "marketing communications."
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