Processes, systems, frameworks are thing that help us do things right. That is, they provide us the ability to more consistently do the things that produce the right outcomes and results.
Our selling process helps us more effectively and efficiently align with the customer buying process, producing greater value with the customer. Our account/territory planning processes help us maximize our growth and the results within the accounts/territory.
Sales enablement, marketing, and others provide programs and tools that help us grow execute effectively. For example, sales enablement might provide onboarding programs that both reduce the ramp time to productivity, and the likelihood of success. Training programs help us learn new skills and capabilities to execute.
Absent these, we tend to do things randomly, inefficiently, and ineffectively. We tend to let things drive us, than executing purposefully. When we don’t have these things in place, when we don’t execute them effectively and efficiently, we fail.
But some times doing things right is the wrong thing. The issues we face may be different than those we have experienced in the past. The goals have changed, the customers and markets have changed. Or there are pragmatic constraints like time, funding, resources.
As much as we want to do things right, doing so would actually be wrong, we would not achieve what we need to achieve.
Sometimes, we fail to perform, because we are so locked into our structures, processes, procedures and rules. We become rigid, inflexible, unresponsive, and incapable of making the right decisions and taking the right actions. We fail to recognize that doing things right is wrong for these circumstances.
As a result, we have to adapt, we have to adjust, we have to modify those doing things the right way, to doing something that works in the specific circumstances.
We do this consciously and thoughtfully. We use what we know as the right way to do things as the context, by which we assess, “what can we make work in for the specific circumstance we face?”
We, also, recognize that as quickly as possible, we want to do things right–simply because it’s what produces results over the long term and it’s what makes us most effective and efficient.
This is completely different from those who take action, based on instinct, reacting/responding to what has happened. Too many fail to take the time, to do the analysis, to figure out how to do things right. Instead they take random action, never learning and leveraging past experience. They are busy, but never produce consistent performance or results.
As much as possible, we need to do things right. But when circumstances prevent us from doing so, we can’t be bound by those things, but we must adjust and change to fit the circumstances.
Afterword: Please do not confuse doing things the right way with doing the right thing. We must never compromise on doing the right thing. To do so, is to abandon our values and beliefs.
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