I often meet professionals who are a part of companies with tremendous potential for success. But, when presented with an opportunity to seize the moment, they come up with one of three classic excuses. Do these sound familiar to you? If so, be sure to lock them away and throw away the key.
1) “Our Business Is Different”
I speak around the world about how to help businesses stand out and grow with integrity. Most of the participants take notes, internalize the concepts, and try to see how to apply the ideas to their business. Recently, I was speaking at an event and during the question segment; Shawn raised his hand and said, “This all seems great for most people. But, our business is different. See, we sell legal services.”
At other events, Shawn’s role is filled by someone who says they sell information technology solutions, accounting, construction, or financial services. I asked Shawn, “You have professionals who offer their expertise for a fee, correct? And other firms claim to offer similar services? And your professionals who perform those services are also the ones selling those services. But, very few of those professionals are comfortable doing so, right?” He confirmed each of those.
I then asked the audience “Raise your hand if that sounds like your business.” Seventy-five percent of the room raised their hand.
When you believe that you are “special” and new ideas don’t apply to you, it is a convenient excuse that puts you back on the proverbial treadmill where you exert energy, but don’t actually go anywhere. This also leads to the trap that is my second favorite excuse.
2) “We Have Always Done It This Way”
If you are a human being, you probably don’t like change. Doing things the way you have in the past might feel comfortable. It got you to where you are today, right? However, if you maintain the status quo while your competitors or customers change their methods, then you are falling behind. What got you to where you are today might not be what you need in order to get you to the next level.
We received a call from a company who had been using someone for the past few years to run a workshop to help the company grow. They had used the same resource for the past few years. In the first year, they saw minimal growth. The next year they dropped by five percent. The most recent year, they fell by 12 percent. I explained that in order to get the results that they said were important, it would cost a bit more than they had been investing. After some time, they told us that they are just going to use the resource they had been using.
If you keep doing the same thing, don’t be surprised if your results are disappointing. In this case, the company decided that they would prefer to just do what they had been doing in the past. After all, they didn’t have the additional dollars in the budget, right?
3) “We Don’t Have Time or Budget”
When you say you don’t have time or budget, what does it really mean? Clearly, there are areas where you spend time and money. So, when you say that you don’t have time or budget for something, what you are really saying is that something else is a higher priority.
In business, are you spending your time or money on “the way you have always done things?“ You have to believe that you’ll get better results from another investment in order to shift resources (time or money) from something else to the other option. It’s easy to just say, “We’re too busy.” What if the carpenter says he is “too busy to measure?” What if the salesperson says he is “too busy to follow up?”
For example, my clients who practice a form of role-play each week for one hour on their own achieve dramatically better results than those who do not invest that hour. The ones who don’t practice always say, “We just don’t have time.” The successful ones say, “We realized that if we didn’t invest the time, we wouldn’t hit our goals. Investing that hour each week saves us a ton of time in the long run because we are more effective and efficient because of it.”
Conclusion
Lookout for these three excuses. They can cripple your business. If you think your business is different, or you are better off doing things the way you always have, or you don’t have time or money… what you might have is just a bunch of excuses. The top performing companies avoid these excuses, and you’ll join their ranks if you can avoid them, too.
It’s Your Turn
Share your story of these excuses in the comments. Which excuses should have made the list?
This article was syndicated from Business 2 Community: Top 3 Excuses Of Underperforming Companies
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