Five Steps to Shift Your Marketing Perspective

It is not uncommon for a business to become stuck in a "marketing comfort zone." Especially when it's treading water. Taking new actions often require a certain degree of risk and new thinking which can feel uncomfortable. What you probably wanted to hear was that you could get outside the comfort zone by doing something that was different, but still comfortable. Sorry, it doesn't work that way.

Discomfort is, "a state of mental unease, worry or embarrassment". That's how your brain feels when you step outside your comfort zone. Creating new thinking inevitably creates challenges and some discomfort - but that is when the real break-throughs occur. The only way to get outside of the comfort zone is by taking actions that make you uncomfortable.

Mostly, the unease, worry or embarrassment is fear of rejection, failure and the unfamiliar. Nobody wants to feel this so the best alternative is avoiding discomfort at all costs.

Yet people step outside of their comfort zones every day. They are willing to take risks, experiment with a new idea; do things that might not work, face rejection and embarrassment and somehow live to tell the tale.

How do they do that?

Very simple. They realize that the cost of staying comfortable, the cost of inaction is far greater than the cost of taking action and being momentarily uncomfortable.

For Example:

Comfortable: Not making follow-up calls.
Uncomfortable: Making follow-up calls.

Cost of not making follow-up calls:
Aci?Ac Lost opportunity to make a business connection.
Aci?Ac Lost opportunity to turn a prospect into a client.
Aci?Ac Loss of potential increased revenue.
Aci?Ac Missed opportunity to provide value.

Cost of making follow-up calls:
Aci?Ac Feel uncomfortable with the thought of possible rejection.

As you can see, when blinded by our momentary fear, we don't take action, despite the fact that the long-term consequences are astronomically higher than the short-term discomfort.

In this context, the cost to your business of inaction seems extraordinarily high compared to the price of taking an action. When you look at the real cost of action or inaction, things begin to look very different. This is what creates breakthroughs and allows you to view your "Comfort Zone" with a new level of awareness.

5 simple steps to shift your perspective and achieve success.

1. List all the marketing activities that you are now avoiding. The test is that just thinking about doing these things makes you feel uncomfortable, uneasy or worried.

2. Now create three columns, one titled "Imaginary Cost," the second titled, "Real Cost," the third titled "Potential Payoff." Do this exercise with just one marketing activity at a time such as giving a presentation, writing an newsletter, or making follow-up calls.

3. In column one, "Imaginary Costs," you'd write all the things that might happen if you took a risk: "People might laugh at me, I wouldn't do a very good job, the response would be poor."

These are imaginary costs, as you really have no proof any of these would happen, you just fear that they might happen.

4. In column two, "Real Costs," you'd write all the things that will definitely happen if you don't take action: "People won't hear about my services, I won't make any impression, people won't be talking about my services, people won't have the chance to respond."

These are real costs, because it's easy to see that if you don't take some action, nothing will happen.

5. In column three, "Potential Payoff,"- write all the positive things that could possibly happen if you took action: "People might respond and make inquiries about my services, they might talk to others, they might set up appointments with me, they might even become clients."

It's easy to see that these potential payoffs are much more real than the imaginary costs.

If you do this exercise honestly, you'll have a shift in perspective; you'll start to see that avoidance is actually more uncomfortable and more costly in the long run than taking action. You'll see that the discomfort of taking action is safer, and much easier than the "comfort" of avoiding action.

You will soon see your business take on a new growth perspective, as will you!

Things do not change; we change. ~Henry David Thoreau