Pandemic, Puzzles and New Business.
These three words do not seem to belong together, but the COVID19 event revealed a surprising connection. First, the Pandemic created time to step back from the normal day-to-day activities and look at life from a different perspective.
This began during the stay-at-home orders when my wife and I decided to while-away the time by working puzzles, --something we have not done in over thirty years! It was relaxing and fun and the time together was one of the few benefits of being stuck at home. The puzzles were challenging with the smallest being 500 pieces. Each one had its own peculiarities that more than once caused us to almost give-up, but we stuck to the task. The reward was the sense of satisfaction we both felt and gladly shared with our Facebook friends.
So how then does building puzzles and business development relate and what can we learn from the process of putting a puzzle together that can help in our efforts to acquire and maintain new accounts?
Keep the end in view. When building a puzzle, the box top with the photo for reference is a must because it provides important visual clues as a guide. In the same way, business development requires establishing clear objectives and outcomes. With these established, we have a better chance for reaching out goals.
Organize your work. Everyone knows that the starting point for doing a puzzle is to sort the pieces that are similar. In the same way, a good business development plan requires an organized approach that includes many elements such as determining the audience, messaging, delivery, and follow-through.
Work the edges and fill-in. Successful puzzle building usually starts with completing the outside edges first. In busines development, we define the edges by determining what are the boundaries and then work within them. These include clearly identifying things such as, industry, size of business, geographic area, etc.
Expect problems and adjust to overcome them. Often, we find puzzle parts that we think will fit but do not, so we have learned to set that piece down and move on. In the-same-way, we must learn to bypass obstacles, setting them aside and work on the parts of the program that will keep the project moving.
Change the view and perspective. Many times, to compete a puzzle it helps to move around and look at it from another angle. This change in perspective often reveals things that were overlooked. The same is true with business development. Be willing to adjust to the conditions as they are presented, not as you imagined or wanted them to be.
Do not give up. Yes, this is most important. We almost gave up on all the puzzles but ultimately stuck it out and succeeded. So, it is in everything we do; our success or failure is determined by how committed we are to the end goal.
I will leave you with this tried and true axiom. Plan your work and work your plan.
