This past Sunday, I met my friend Derrick at 7:00 am at the trail head of the Blackwater River Rails to Trails bike path. It was a beautiful morning ride, and as we rode along the 18 mile length of Longleaf Pine Forest, we were treated to the intoxicating aroma of honeysuckle, views of Bald Cyprus, Red Maple, Pitcher Plants and Bunny Rabbits galore. It was indeed a most pleasant and enjoyable morning.
Upon arriving back at the trailhead, I met one of my sales training clients. As we chatted, we both realized that we would be in Chicago the last week of April. I will be attending the Glazer Kennedy Super Conference and she will be there for an industry best practices session.
As I headed home, I thought about her comment of attending her industry specific best practices session.
While I am sure she will derive some benefit from attending sessions with industry peers, there are downsides to attending such an event. Attending industry specific events, trade shows, conferences, etc. have limitations.
The limiting factor of these events is that the attendees all think alike, have the same business experience, and prejudices. They all have the same issues and generally respond in the same manner.
Basically they all operate from the same paradigm and live within the same mental box. Associating with one’s peers essentially exposes oneself to limited and narrow thinking and seldom reduces breakthroughs.
Copying the best sales training and marketing practices of those in your industry amount to nothing more than becoming a “me too copycat”.
While these practices may improve one’s business incrementally, it is certain that they will not produce breakthrough experiences. To achieve breakthrough experiences one has to study and associate with those outside of their industry and take practices that are working in different industries and creatively apply those within one’s own industry. That is how one becomes the leader of that industry.
You cannot become a leader in your industry doing what other leaders of your industry are doing.
You must adopt outside the box thinking and behaviors and implement strategies and tactics that no one else in your industry is implementing if you desire to achieve exponential growth and become the dominant player in your industry.
All major business breakthroughs are the result of implementing never before done practices.
My client, like you, would benefit greatly from being in association and being part of a Mastermind of different businesses that are doing different things in different ways.
The fact is, those outside of your own industry are able to see with exceptional clarity, opportunities and roadblocks that those within your industry, because of their biases, are unable to see.
Since those outside your industry are not colored by industry norms and prejudices and biases they are able to see with “fresh eyes” those things they you or your peers are not able to see.
Failure to expose yourself to those outside of your industry guarantees that at best you will become nothing more than a cheap imitation of someone else.
Myself, I want to be original, unique and beyond comparison. That is why I do not associate with those in the sales training industry.