It pays adapting to uncertainties

What you need to know:

  • If you planned ‘BC’ (Before Corona) you will ease into planning now.
  • If planning was taboo for you BC, then you will be overwhelmed by the debilitating feelings and hopefully you will now understand the importance of planning.
  • The more now when the pesky virus is quickly becoming something we are taking in our stride.

Planning is a science. Implementation is an art. This was true ‘BC’ (Before Corona) and is truer in these times of uncertainty. Unfortunately, most sellers interpret uncertainty to mean, “Why bother planning? It just wastes time because it won’t unfold in like manner.” True. True too, is that that complaint is born of a selective, frustrated, confused and fixed mind. Selective because, planning does not imply “will unfold precisely as planned.” This was true BC and now. A plan is a compass, not a map; indeed, even, a map is not the territory; things on the ground are different. As I’ve said before, “If business unfolded in real life as it does on Microsoft Excel, then everyone would be in business.”

“Why bother?” also comes from a frustrated mind. Frustrated at the feeling of helplessness this pesky virus has showered upon many sellers; confused that yesterday’s pitch is not working today and fixed on insisting that the problem is the market, not them and the need to plan. Let’s be clear; all these feelings, draining as they are, are understandable.

Especially, with the perennial sales meeting always looming; where your increasingly poor aim at your targets will be discussed, yet again. Yes, the feelings are understandable; they are also something to think about not dwell upon. After all, your poor aim is not news, is it? It used to happen BC too.

If you planned BC you will ease into planning now. If planning was taboo for you BC, then you will be overwhelmed by the debilitating feelings and hopefully you will now understand the importance of planning. The more now when the pesky virus is quickly becoming something we are taking in our stride. Admittedly, because of the convoluted terrain implementation is currently traveling on, planning itself is becoming an art. BC we could envisage a year, even five, for those doing strategic planning. Now, a mere month is difficult to predict, yet we must. Why? If you agree that travelling unknown terrain without a compass is foolish, then you see why. If you don’t, then, well, we’ll make you a prayer item.

One of the reasons many sellers struggle with planning is because they are an old dog adamantly sticking to its guns of old tricks.

To be accepting of new tricks the old dog must metamorphose into a butterfly and fly gracefully and with agility. Otherwise it’ll remain a caterpillar forever inching along the ground constantly under threat of being crushed. Creating and selling your digital presence are activities one can plan and implement in this uncertainty.

So too is this lesson: from halting marriage applications, to accepting them online, to now officiating them at Nairobi School, the registrar of marriages has commendably metamorphosed. What about you?

Insisting that prospecting BC fashion, for instance, is what you are comfortable with and is the reason why you can’t plan, won’t fly.

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Note: The results are not exact but very close to the actual.