We underestimate the importance of adaptability, being agreeable and open to suggestions may be interpreted as a sign of feebleness. Now you can elect to be a dinosaur, for hundreds of millions of years, they were at the top of the food chain, dominating the earth. They eventually died out, not because a more ferocious predator overpowered them, but due to their inability to adapt to the dramatic changes in global climate.
In the Month of November 2016, I was at the WebSummit in Lisbon, and we met hundreds of young entrepreneurs who want to change the world, under the same roof we met dozens of established companies too. We were exhibiting at the WebSummit as a beta startup and thanks to high pitch campaign we attracted a lot of eyeballs. I am the CEO and Founder of a Sales Acceleration company – Platformax. We help businesses in streamlining their sales process using new age technologies that use Machine Learning. We don’t automate a shitty process, thereby saving the companies the trauma of produce more shit faster. We improve the process and use technology to drive sales results through machine learning.
One of the things that set me thinking and to pen down my thoughts through this article was a meeting with one of the Fortune 1000 executives. This Fortune 1000 company uses a legacy CRM tool to manage customers, and he told me that they had grown their revenue by 10x in last ten years, though they are seeing a flat line now and sales people are not scaling up the numbers as fast as before. He attributed this flat line growth to lack of motivation and training.
In the early years of humanity, the wheelbarrow was the most sexiest thing on earth; it solved so many problems, made life easier and was the in thing, the legacy CRM systems are like the wheelbarrows. They move leads and customers from one stage to another and visually show you the sales funnel; this was path-breaking invention ten years ago, but not anymore. Today the environment has changed and you need smarter tools to help you in getting to deal closure before your competitor. The accompanying data should throw intelligent facts at you so that you make the right move.
The legacy CRM systems are like Kodak camera’s and their executives keep on adding features on top of an old run down thought process; Instagram took down Kodak; the same will happen to legacy CRM systems because they are the last remains of the pipe based business models. Most of the executives and company owners are stuck in the inertia of success, and they believe that just by having a CRM tool, all sales problems will go away, what a wishful thinking.
After an hour-long debate with this 6-figure salary executive from the Fortune 1000 stable, I was able to drill down that if you use an old system that is about to die, you will die with it. It’s similar to going into a war today, with horses and camels, now there is nothing wrong with animals, the fact is fighter jets, and tanks will blast the shit out of them in no time. As a leader of the company, you are as good as the tools and resources that you choose to fight the battle. If you select a substandard, legacy system that is in the last stages of dying, will your business thrive?
The world is changing fast, and the best companies can adapt. In business terms, their ROI (Return on Investment) is also related to their adaptability rate. The ability to adapt to newer thoughts is a sure shot predictor of a company’s survival. Sales are the lifeline of any business, and if it falters you can count your days, by moving and adapting newer sales techniques and tools, you can increase your chances of survival.
The current change is christened as the Fourth Industrial Revolution; it is the new fad, and everybody is claiming to be an expert. However, the truth is that most companies and individuals are struggling to adapt to new technological changes and learn the skills required to stay on top. This shift is inevitable, and in case you want to bulletproof your sales numbers from future shocks, sign up for a free demo with us at Platformax.com.
Leave A Comment