How to Adapt to Changing Circumstances

Life today is constantly changing and presenting us with new challenges. We’re experiencing a period of unprecedented and rapid change, and something that worked yesterday may well not work at all tomorrow.

At the same time, the speed and number of electronic messages and social media updates which bombard us are higher than ever before. These factors are external to your business, but can have a big impact on people’s attitudes and behaviour.

So, how does this impact your business and what can you do to adapt?

There are three significant implications to this frantic level of activity that demonstrate why your old approaches might not work any more.

1. Your team

For any business to succeed, it’s vital to keep your team engaged. You must communicate with them regularly and listen to what they have to say. At the same time, you should continually reinforce your principal message, and reflect on these key questions:

• Have you shared your company vision and goals with your team?
• Do they believe in them?
• Do they understand how their role contributes to achieving them?
• Do you keep your team updated with progress and future actions?

Even if you’re a good communicator, you should still make regular changes to the way you and your team engage. The lockdown has given us some ideas for a different approach, with online platforms offering opportunities for both personalised and group communication.

You can either get everyone together for a “town hall” event, or schedule a series of one-on-one meetings. These give people the opportunity to ask questions and voice their concerns. You also have the chance to personalise your message.

The main thing is to ask yourself whether you’re communicating and listening enough, and in the right way? This helps to formulate your approach and enhance your communications.

2. Your approach

You need to create an environment where your business can adapt and grow. So it’s worth taking time out to reflect on whether your current approaches are still delivering?

• Do similar problems keep cropping up?
• Are you getting the same level of repeat business?
• Are you seeing an increase in employee turnover?

If you see troublesome patterns emerging, it may be time to embrace new ideas and approaches. To get a different result, you’ll need a different strategy. So in order for your business to evolve, you need to make the changes to make this happen.

The first step is to identify the areas that are not working as well as they did, or those you want to improve further. Next, challenge yourself to break your old habits and routines. Areas such as; whether your internal processes are still effective, what your priorities really are now, and how you motivate and manage your team, are all worth reviewing.  And don’t forget your customers and potential customers may have also had to adapt and evolve.

3. Your Customers

Your customers are living in this same, ever-changing world, and they’re receiving and processing a myriad of information too. Their thinking evolves as they’re bombarded with the same new ideas and images, and they face similar challenges.

This means they’ve had to adjust their operating models and behaviours as well, so it’s not unexpected to see their purchase behaviour and habits altering accordingly.

Engaging with your customers is vital to any sales strategy, as is getting their feedback.

But it’s equally vital to respond to your customers’ needs and react to changes. This could mean you adapting the way you communicate or the frequency of contact. It might involve more social media content, or a more active response to customer referrals. In today’s evolving sales environment, you might even have to alter and develop a product or service, but the crucial thing is to understand what has changed for them and identify how you need to respond.

Our team at BHP Consulting have all successfully run businesses, and we understand that every business is unique. Our practical approach to supporting our clients enables us to share our real-world experience to positively impact on the performance of your business. To arrange a call or an exploratory face-to-face meeting, please click here