History proves time and again, whether you’re making a Grand Canyon, getting in shape or barbecuing, taking it slowly gets things done. Kyle Bullock and I are starting a podcast called, The Slow Growth Podcast and when he sent me his idea for the name, I didn’t like it. But 30 seconds into my analysis I thought, “This is brilliant!” Look at any organization that’s made significant changes and you’ll find that most likely it was done over a year or several.
If I’m going to use a personal example, I think the biggest change in our jewelry store was the culture. With the mix of personalities, motivations and backgrounds, I wanted to create a culture of love, respect and care for the customer above all else. You can’t make those types of changes quickly. Your culture needs to be modeled every day with customers and staff. Eventually when people see how you want things to run, they start catching on and modeling those ideals.
The reason for my writing on this topic is because I’m often asked to visit a store to “Get people pumped up to sell”. But it rarely works. People can hear a good locker room hype talk, but it’s what happens after the sales trainer has left that makes the difference in the long run. My buddy Brad Huisken always says that sales training doesn’t work if it’s a one-time event. The same goes for making any significant change in your store. On the other hand, there’s tremendous power in ‘a little bit at a time over time’. Just go visit the Grand Canyon.