How do you know what you don’t know? It’s with great confidence that I say: What I don’t know would fill – should they still exist – several sets of encyclopedias. This is the natural state for most human beings, and it’s a condition that’s accelerating with the pace of technological change.
Mind The Gap
While I don’t believe that “ignorance is bliss”, it’s obviously okay to not know everything: that’s why experts were invented. Yet, even with the availability of expert advice, I see otherwise capable people fall into what I call The Gap.
Found within the depths of The Gap are the damaging consequences of illogical management decisions. A colleague recently shared his experience:
“I’ve been talking with this organization for over two years. They have a literal stack of leads sitting on a desk that could generate tens of thousands in revenue, right now. After two years of discussions and deliberations, they still have no systems in place to effectively follow up and close sales.”
Multiply these lost opportunities by two (or more) years and the amount of lost revenue is staggering.
The owners of this family-run business knew things weren’t working and reached out for help two years ago, yet nothing has changed. Are these people stupid? I don’t think so. But they appear to be paralyzed because they are afraid of making the wrong choice. They have let what they don’t know stop them from making decisions, which is definitely not smart. Not knowing the solution themselves should not prevent them from engaging an expert that does.
We’ve been implementing contact management and CRM systems for eleven years and, sadly, this is not an unusual story. We help our prospects understand that a CRM project is not a cost – it’s an investment in a process that makes money for the company. But it can be tough for someone who is stuck deep in The Gap, with old technology, nonexistent or redundant systems, and dwindling self-confidence, to make the decision to pull themselves out. And, while they flounder, costs go up and revenues stay flat, or worse.
If our story has a moral it’s that the cost of doing nothing is very costly indeed. To not invest in a business is to doom it to mediocrity or failure. So, mind The Gap. It’s dangerous in there.