The Best Way to Predict the Future is to Invent It

I start most days watching a video from Donald Miller at Building a Story Brand. This morning the interview was with a senior executive at Chick-Fil-A (my very favorite place for breakfast and lunch). At some point during the interview he quoted Peter Drucker: “The best way to predict the future is to create it.” I thought I would do a little fact checking and came across the Quote Investigator site. It is linked here in case you want to read all about the quote which started out as “The best way to predict the future is to invent it.”  

I am inventing the future with my firm, Prospect-Experience. I am helping CMOs convert more prospects and drive more revenue than they are today.

Prospect-Experience works with B2B executives to not just do things better, but to do things differently. My team works with clients to prioritize the prospect experience as well as the customer experience. We are putting focus on a future no longer overlooks acquisition and retention, and instead embraces it. Gartner has noted the need and increasingly other marketing and sales executives are as well.

You don't need more leads. You need a better approach to moving prospects through the pipeline.

I will put it another way. Prospects are not being treated as well as they should. Companies sign up to have pushy appointment setters calling their market … and/or they deploy telemarketers reading from a rote script … and/or they barrage their targets (and non-targets) with poorly written, one-to-many instead of one-to-one, personalized emails. It is no wonder prospects aren’t responding to these approaches. And it’s no wonder only 50% of sales reps are making quota.

Unfortunately, the large number of technology solutions and the ever-growing technology stack is making it easier to get more poor-quality leads to sales faster than ever before. Yet, not many senior executives want to be treated like the human equivalent of a pin ball, capturing your attention only after they have hit the right bumpers and scored enough points.

There is a clear path to doing things differently. Check out the 12-Point Prospect-Experience Transformation process here. Start with Total Addressable Market, or Nurturing or any combination of the steps that resonate with you. You don’t have to do all 12 at once to experience the value.

Progressing prospects through the funnel requires a different approach. Converting them into customers requires a new way of thinking. And accelerate your organizations’ ability to generate revenue—well that’s the ultimate benefit of thinking outside the box.

Reinvent the way you treat your prospects—and provide an experience that is productive for all.

Doing things differently—that is treating prospects well—beats spending $1,000 per seat plus on technology that automates bad processes. Send me an InMail and let’s connect on your specific challenges.

Nancy JoyceComment