I have been writing posts about why and how the new digital marketing initiatives are missing the boat and doing badly in digital what we do badly in sales – merely address the solution placement rather than all aspects of the buying decision journey. As Einstein once said, you can’t solve a problem by seeking a solution in the same place where the problem lie.

What is so surprising to me is that so many people are getting annoyed with my message, rather than stopping for a moment and considering what I’m saying.

The field of sales only has a 7% success rate. Why use the same method of sharing/collecting content,placing solution, and ‘understanding need’ that got us such a low success rate to begin with? Does everyone believe that the emporer has clothes on?

Is no one else willing to stand up and say that not only is the sales model broken, but the attempts we’re making in the digital sales and marketing field are using the same assumptions and are potentially doomed?

And while I’m on the subject, why do people think it’s ME that’s wrong? I’d like to think that after having written so many books and articles, I’m relatively cogent on the topic, and my ideas are worthy of consideration. But I”m obviously touching a sore.

One person in the content marketing field got so annoyed with a post that she told me I was wrong but she didn’t want an apology!?

When people get annoyed with me, it’s because their thinking is stuck in an old, familiar place and they are successful-enough; instead of getting excited by the prospect of some new thinking, they seek to find fault with me. No wonder it takes so long for new ideas to take hold.

I’ve been talking about the difference between the human side of the buying decision journey (or any situation that causes someone to make a new decision) for over 20 years. Many people are now – finally- finding the ideas either somewhat interesting. Others are stil finding them just plain wrong (That’s right. A 7% success rate is much better!).

How does the world change? How can people learn to consider that just maybe, maybe, the emporer has no clothes on, and for just a moment, stop pretending otherwise? I guess using one of my Facilitative Questions I would ask:

How would you know when it was time to consider new ideas that would potentially be out of alignment with your current thinking? At what point would you be able to supplement current thinking with additional ideas, and still work from a congruent idea base?

sd

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