I had a roommate once who stored bacon grease in quart-size mason jars in the freezer. Every time we fried bacon or chicken she would pour the leftover grease into the jar with available space, or, as need be, start another jar. One day, I asked Jodi why she did that – was there something that she would eventually make or do with all that grease?
She had no idea. “I do it because my mama did it,” she said.
Perplexed at her own actions, Jodi then called her mom, and asked what she was supposed to do with the growing quarts of bacon grease in the freezer.
“Throw them away,” her mother instructed. Because Jodi had never witnessed that end of the bacon grease cycle as a kid, later, as an adult, she assumed that they remained in the freezer. She never questioned this ingrained ritual or its outcome.
Some people approach business that way: they do things because that’s the way they’ve always been done, and they don’t question the results – or lack thereof.
Are you still cold calling, or sending direct mail, or reaching out to the same people over and over, because that’s the way you’ve always done it – despite the fact that no one answers his/her phone, postage rates are on the increase again, and your old prospects have gone quiet?
Isn’t it time to throw away those ineffective, unusable techniques, and try something new?
