We love the safe play – how to break out this New Year

Why do the New York Yankees keep going after David Wells, Roger Clemens, and Andy Petite?Why are football coaches scared to go for it on 4th down?Is it because it is not the conventional way to do it and is not supported by the 6o year old announcer in the booth or is it because we like the safe play – the way we have always done it before? The same things happen in our networking and business world.  It’s the end of the year and what are we told to do?  “Get back out there and get more people in your business talk to everyone you run into this holiday season.” “Marketing research says that if you tell your message 8 times to someone they will finally get it.” How about the research that says our prospects are sick of seeing our faces especially when we have nothing new or exciting to say?  Many business professionals, me included, are digesting our holiday meals along with reviewing what happened in 2007 and starting the planning process for 2008. What can we do to keep from playing it safe? Step one – Take off the rose colored glasses when reviewing your past year. Look beyond the results or commission checks to what is going on beneath the results. What were you doing? What behaviors led directly to your successes or failures? If all your answers end with – “Well, I signed up 20 people; or I made Silver or Gold,” then it may be time for “I’m playing it safe intervention” or the “Removing rose color glasses 12 step program.” Examples of behaviors that lead to results (either good or bad):·    Advanced questioning strategies to discover the real needs of the prospects before spewing your opportunity all over them.·    Too many “Hi, how you doing?” prospecting calls that had no real objective except to check off a prospecting call on my calendar.·    Research on the internet and through internal coaches to learn the language that the customer uses to describe their issues.·    Shotgun marketing activities vs. laser focused marketing activities. I spent my entire marketing budget, my business should grow. Step two – Pick 2-3 behaviors that were successful and continue to do them. Then choose 2-3 behaviors that you want to work on. Some of the past behaviors need to be kept as they led to your current success, but others need tweaking. Personally, I will be working on ensuring that I let all my business partners know what I have been working on for the year. These stories may stimulate them to see an application in their business and the need to tweak their activity. I am not assuming my business partners know everything about how I can help them! Step three – Share your plan with your mentor or Leader. By letting others in on the plan allows them to help us keep focused. Outsiders often don’t have the rose colored glass syndrome and can be more objective.  Creating new behaviors is not an easy process. Doing things the “old way” is often much more comfortable. But we may find that the results are not as rewarding as we might want, so change your thinking. Remember how the crowd responded when the coach went for the yardage on the 4th down instead of punting. As the New Year begins, think about your strategies and how you can break out from some of the old patterns. Every time you “go for it” you might not be successful, but it sure is refreshing to try something new or different or even to just refine an old behavior. Give it a shot and my guess is that your partners and prospects will be relieved to see not just the old behaviors, but some new innovations. Quit playing it safe!