Whenever you embark on something new, there comes with it a huge source of excitement. And this excitement creates the fresh energy that drives things forward. But I am not just talking about the power to get things done, I am talking about the power to see more of what can be done.
A great example is when you move into a new home. It is a really personal thing. Something that consumes your thoughts and is hard to stop thinking about. You see an infinite amount of possibilities – some short term – some long term. Your whole mindset is running on some kind of creative adrenalin, and you are gushing with more ideas than you can latch onto or remember.
But at some point, that fresh energy is no longer fresh. It’s likely that there has been a good level of effort applied and there have been positive changes that have been realized. But with that comes the risk associated with the lack of fresh energy. And that is when the staleness process begins.
And it is this staleness, this fading effect, that you have to watch out for when you are driving your business forward. This whole fading effect is a double-ended force. As you fade away from the changes in your marketplace, your market fades away from your business. No matter how exciting something is at the start, the excitement fades. Customers get bored and tune out if you over-engage by doing the same things, i.e. same old, same old – and they certainly tune out if you are not engaging in some manner. And as you go along your merry away being happy with the status quo, marketplace activity, whether it be customer or competitor behavior, has a way of sneaking by without you noticing.
While you may not have the resources to act on all the ideas that you may have, it is still pretty important to keep the ideas flowing. And when you are in business, the growth and profitability will depend on it. If you are not going forwards, you are moving backwards. If the new ideas are not flowing for you and everything looks the same, opportunity will pass you by.
So what to do?
It is paramount to continually seek engagement with your marketplace. This is the source of all freshness. New perspectives can come through different sources and different channels. It can come from the fresh look that new entrants to your business bring naturally. It can come from new customers or departed customers. Or it can come from your suppliers.
But you have to pro-actively seek it out. You need to expect that the questions that you ask of yourself will remain the same – What business are you in? How are you positioned to fulfill your goals? – but the answers will change as your marketplace goes through its natural evolution. The processes that you incorporate to gather that vital information for satisfy the market’s needs as best you can, are vital to success of your business beyond the short term.
The key to it all is to have the mindset to seek out the new freshness that is out there. And putting that mindset to work in a set of marketing processes that are able to drive the continual change that every business needs, to adapt and grow. Getting fresh perspective triggers regular infusions of fresh energy into your business, and this is what keeps your “sales” full.