Why Change Is So Difficult

I don’t know how many conversations that we have had with members who comment that the industry has changed so dramatically and that all of our businesses need to change to keep pace. Think about what has happened to our industry, and to a larger extent, our society. Could you have imagined that we would live in a world where more individuals have a mobile subscription than access to electricity or safe drinking water?  As Dan Pink describes in his book To Sell Is Human, we have moved from Caveat Emptor to Caveat Venditor (buyer beware to seller beware).  

Today, customers come to showrooms armed with pictures, product information, pricing, reviews by former clients and so on.  In many cases, they believe they know as much about the products that we sell as do the showroom sales professionals.  The way that new customers find us, evaluate us and make decision to buy from a showroom have changed significantly.  And showrooms need to change to keep pace, but that’s easier said than done.

When you have a quiet moment, ask yourself - what changes have you really made in the past five years to respond to the current market conditions? 

Have you changed the way you approach customers and go-to-market? If someone went to your web site, what are the reasons they would or should return in the future?

Have you changed the way you train your staff and are you teaching them how to build better relationships with clients and prospects?  

If you are involved in project work, do you know who the target market is for a new development? When someone comes in to renovate a master bath, do your sales professionals determine the reasons for the renovation? 

Without understanding the why, it is going to be difficult to make recommendations that will place your sales professionals in the position of trusted advisor.  Simply taking orders makes your team order takers.  What have you changed to help make it easier to buy from you or that you understand the needs, wants and desires of your customers? What’s changed and what has been the result of that change?

If the answer to most of the questions above is not much, you most likely are not alone.  Most people are resistant to change.  The psychologists and HR folks tell us that people resist change because they believe they lose control.  They fear the unknown and gravitate to what is most comfortable and what already works.  

Can you blame your fellow team members for sticking with the status quo?  Yes you can, because our world is changing so rapidly. Are you and your team learning to address tomorrow’s challenges?  Do you plan to go to the DPHA Conference, November 7-10 in Seattle?  Do you plan to take advantage of the sales professionals training program for your team members at the Conference?  Confucius wrote, “Only the wisest and stupidest of men never change.”

Dan Pink writes in his seminal work Drive that one effective way to facilitate changes in behavior is to phrase the goals you want to achieve as business problems and ask your staff to be active participants in the resolution of those problems.  Pink claims that this technique will do more to overcome resistance and motivate change than any other strategy.  A couple of suggestions:

 

• Gather your team that may resist selling the highest margin products in your showroom and ask them what they would do to make those products more marketable other than cutting the price.

• Ask your staff to identify the two or three greatest challenges that they face daily.  Then ask them - if they were the owner of the showroom, what would they do to make things better?  Reward the consultant with the best answer.

 

Telling someone who has been doing X for a long time to suddenly do Y is a recipe for disaster. Making your team members the facilitators of change makes it easier and more rewarding.  Give it a try and please share your results on DPHA’s Facebook page and with our LinkedIn group.