Consider this small window of opportunity—now—the biggest moment of your future.
The Financial Times called it a “once-in-a-century” boom, the Economist said, “in a way not seen for at least two decades.” Nobel-winning economist Paul Krugman calls this imminent moment coming out of COVID a big bounce followed by a long boom. Many are predicting a second roaring twenties.
But it won’t boom for all.
Why?
While business budgets will finally unleash an economic deluge and consumers will create a tidal wave of spending not seen in decades, those who emerge as winners and losers will be those who are prepared to handle the boom—and those who aren’t.
Krugman wrote that much of the boom will be because of the investments in future technology being made now.
And according to the World Economic Forum: “More than 80% of business execs are accelerating plans to digitize work processes and deploy new technologies … and 50% of employers are expecting to accelerate the automation of some roles in their companies.”
If 2020 taught us anything, it was that agility is what shapes leaders. Agility is what 80% of your competitors are working toward now. And what is agility?
Speed + adaptability.
This moment now is a crucial moment for your future. So how do you act on it now? What can you do right now to prepare you and your team for the boom?
Three action steps:
• Invest in tech now: In a recent podcast recording with Marketing AI leader Paul Roetzer, he said that when it comes to tech, B2B moves too slow. If every major financial publication is heralding “tech investments now!” as the primary step to prepare for the boom to come, you can’t afford to wait. Is your team prepared for the deluge? Can your system -the way you’re doing business now- handle the rush?
• Amp the Client Experience: 2021 belongs to those who make the customer experience smooth and swift. Christy Marble, CMO at Pantheon Systems said that, in 2021, the ones who will win are “cross-functional teams that collaborate through technology-enabled workflows to continuously test, learn, and evolve their digital customer experience.” What’s your customer experience like now? How many touches does it take to complete a simple order? Are you meeting the demand of clients who want a faster, more efficient experience?
• Retool Your Sales Team: McKinsey & Company said the future sales leaders will be those who increase digital skill sets in the sales organization and those who build a future-forward sales technology roadmap. For sales leaders, this means simply giving salespeople the tools to win and the know-how to win fast. The whole world changed buying habits in 2020 and most of those changes are here to stay. Those who adopt, adapt, and retool their sales teams faster will skyrocket to growth.
After such a dark time in 2020, it’s easy to cling to caution as a primary mode. But unlike the slow recovery after the recession of 2007, this one won’t crawl back meekly, it will hit us like a flash flood.
And if 80% of your business colleagues (i.e., competitors) are using this time right now—the calm before the storm—to invest in changes to their business to improve their customer experience and power their salesforce with agile solutions, then staying stuck in turtle-mode could become a sonic boom that blazes right by you.
Are you ready for the boom?
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