In their early days, the rock band, Journey, struggled to find that perfect formula that would gain them the success they were seeking. Instrumentally, their music was always awesome and rich with sound, but they just weren’t connecting with their audience. As much as the original band members stubbornly kept peddling the same music, the numbers just weren’t where they needed them to be to become successful.
Their manager called them all in one day and advised them to get a lead singer, a singer that people would follow, and would help increase their number of listeners and concert goers. The band didn’t want to change; they wanted to keep jamming the same music that wasn’t producing the numbers needed. Luckily, their manager didn’t give up.
He insisted: I have a singer for you and YOU WILL make it work. The band needed their manager, so they agreed to meet Steve Perry, singer and songwriter. The rest is history. Steve Perry had such a unique voice and persona, that it pushed Journey into stardom, resulting in two gold albums, eight multi-platinum albums, and two diamond albums. According to the Recording Industry Association of America, Journey has sold 48 million albums in the U.S., making them the 25th best-selling band in America! Of course, there’s a lot more to this story, but there is an invaluable lesson here.
It wasn’t that Journey didn’t have something really good to offer from the start. What the important lesson here is, that to achieve the success they were after, they were required to listen to professional outside advice and to their audience. In your line of work, what will ultimately bring you success is listening to consultants, managers, and the numbers (your customers). -That is what will tell you the truth and the direction you should be moving in.
Initially, Sales-Link began by selling a do-it-yourself lead generation system. Most everyone back then said, “I’ll buy your system, but does it come with hot leads, ready to meet us?”. This made me question my go-to-market strategy and so I flipped it. I decided to put the system second behind the more manual processes of hunting leads (that was then).
Now, systems have come front and center, blending in lead generation activities. And we again, about 4 years ago, started putting more resources into PharmaBDI, our next-level lead generation system. We listened, we changed, and we became increasingly successful.
“Don’t Stop Believin’” -in the fact that customers and advisors have your back! And don’t fear change!