The 3 “A”s of selling…Part 3, Action. The Top 3 Reasons For Inactivity And How To Overcome Them.

There is nothing that will happen without action.  True in business as well as the entire universe.  There are many inspiring quotes about taking action, but I always think of the Lao-Tzu, the Chinese philosopher’s line “a journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step”.  To me this is the lesson all those starting their own business must learn.

In physics there is a concept called “static friction” or stiction.  Stiction is the effect of a stationery object needing energy to get it moving (overcoming the initial friction).  The force needed to get an object moving is greater than the force needed to keep it moving on the same surface.

Stiction also applies to starting a business.  A simple way to see this is to consider this.  What percentage increase is needed to take your revenue from $100 to $200?  The answer is of course 100%.  Now what increase is needed to take your revenue from $10 to $100?  Answer, 1000%.  And what increase will take revenue from 0 to $10?  For mathematicians, the answer is infinity, but for others it is ‘a heck of a lot’.

In this article I am going to talk about not only how to overcome the enormous task of moving a business from 0 to 1, but some of the causes and cures for (relative) inactivity at all levels of running a business.

#1   Fear

Fear of what?  Fear of failing at a task that is in front of you.  Fear of failing in a business meeting or sales call.  Fear of criticism if you put yourself out there.  Fear of running out of money before the business takes off.  Fear of unfamiliar tasks.  Fear of the tax man if your books are wrong.

I’d better not go on.  Perhaps I have already awakened some fears you didn’t realise you have.  But the fact of the matter is that most of these fears are either as a result of one of the other two factors or are simply irrational.

We all know the answer here is to “face your fears”.  Brave words, when said by a therapist sitting in a comfy arm-chair.  But what does the cliche mean and what exactly do we do?

The starting point is to examine what you might actually be afraid of.  At the risk of becoming terrified and freaking out, take a few moments when you are “in a good place” to think these through.  We all know when we are being honest with ourselves.  What exactly do we fear and is there anything behind it?  Focus on the aspects of business, the tasks or topics that frighten you.

By identifying the fear factors we can then take the necessary step to “face” them or cure them.  The inevitable solution is going to be to take action.  Make the call, make the marketing decision, write (and publish) the piece that might be ridiculed.

If you make a phone call to a prospective client and make a complete mess of it, what is the worst that can happen?  They could laugh at you or slam down the phone.  Or they might not.  If you don’t progress the relationship, don’t make the sale, all that has happened is that you have not got the sale.  But you didn’t have it before the call either.  You’ve used up one contact.  This you will have to replace.  So make the call and then see how afraid you are.  When you’ve made 30 calls, if you are still afraid, you may have to make 300, but eventually not just action but necessary action will overcome the fear.

In facing the fears that might be holding you back, you may discover they are attributable to one of the other top reasons for inactivity.

#2   Lack of confidence

For many people, their passion in the business is in making or delivering their product or service, so there are a great number of business tasks that will be unfamiliar to them.  So perhaps you are not afraid of making the decision on the design of your website, but you don’t have the confidence that you will be picking the right design.

When a baby takes its first step, is it confidence or skill that has held them back to this point?  I love watching babies at this stage.  They actually learn the skills by holding on to things and trying out their legs and movements.  They build their strength as they pull themselves up.  It may not be well co-ordinated yet, but they have everything they need to walk except the confidence.  They’ve never actually let go before.

I’ve noticed that the first unassisted steps are often taken when their mind is on something else.  Try holding their milk cup in front of them, they will often let go in order to reach for the milk, or perhaps someone they really want to go to.  Have you ever seen a parent encouraging the first steps to be taken away from them, no it’s always “come to me”.  (I know, that is because the parent wants to be there to catch them and to watch their cute face…and perhaps steal a cuddle when they make it.)

Naturally, if their mind is set on something they want, they will forget that they don’t have the confidence to walk.  And then what happens?  So often, they head off to reach their cup or Mummy and suddenly realize they are on their own.  “Oh no, I can’t do this” and they plonk down where they stand, not over balancing just lacking the confidence to keep going.  Losing their balance comes later, when they have the confidence to strike out on their own.

In my book, I talk about children being a great example for salesmanship.  Well here again, we can learn a great deal from babies when it comes to the less familiar tasks in business.  You can study all the books and MBAs you like, but until you take your first step and plonk down on your butt, you will never create momentum in your business.

Whether it is about initially starting the business or taking care of the tasks necessary to make it work, action is the only way.  You cannot avoid it so you might as well do it now.

Once you have the confidence to keep taking the bold steps, if you continue to fall you may now be encountering the 3^rd factor of inactivity.

#3   Lack of knowledge or skill

If you have overcome the fear and have the confidence, continued mis-fires or relative failures may be due to a lack of knowledge or skill but this is now fairly easy to identify and overcome.  The internet, the library, numerous facilities to assist start-up companies and of course consultants and coaches are all there to help you gain the necessary knowledge and skills.  Inactivity is not the problem in this case.

However, where a lack of knowledge results in inactivity, it is often because you simply do not know what you do not know.  Inactivity because you didn’t know what had to be done.

This is known as the initiative gap and is often experienced when working with the professions, lawyers, accountants and bankers.  They know what is needed to be known but if you don’t ask they don’t always realise you have no idea what question to ask.  A frustrating reality of some very specialist people.  With luck you will have surrounded yourself with proactive professionals and they will be constantly looking to offer guidance in areas not yet discussed to make sure you haven’t missed anything.

Well that is the first solution in this case, if your professional advisors do not adopt this role, it may be worth changing them.  You need people who will help at every turn, not sit waiting for you to ask.

But you need this proactive and experienced support in other areas of your business.  Does your web guru tell you when to update copy or offers?  Does your marketing guru suggest new angles, new messaging or do you have to go to them and say you think you need a revision?  Clearly a tricky area when dealing with vendors.  They might not wish to be too proactive in fear of being accused of upselling, on the other hand, if they do not offer their experience, perspective and review as the expert, why should you second guess their expertise?

This is where a support network is invaluable.  In a future article, I will be talking about Mastermind groups and accountability partners, but for now, consider who you know who can act as your mentor.  Someone who can take a dispassionate view of your operation, but has the knowledge and experience to understand many aspects of business.

In summary, the overall message here is “sometimes it is easier to correct an action than to take a correct action and inaction is seldom correct”.  (I could debate that last point, but that would just get in the way of my next task.)



Comments

[William Martin]

How many of us are conditioned not to take action for fear of rejection/ridicule/getting it wrong? Society conditions us to get all our ducks lined up (no bad thing) but sometimes you just need to take the plunge and get on with it.