With so much talk about businesses pivoting during the coronavirus crisis, today, I want to offer insight to what, where and how to pivot within your business. In this article I want to share why you should look to pivot it in the first place where to look for pivots and pivoting. I’ll also share some thoughts on the long-term impact it could have for your business.
Dissatisfaction x Vision = First steps > Resistance
Before I go on to discuss more about pivoting let’s first just look at the mindset many people will have engaged with as the lockdown commenced. The above formula when we look at dissatisfaction times vision equals first steps being greater than resistance is a fundamental mindset that many of you will have experienced. Right now, if you reflect on the level of dissatisfaction you experienced when COVID-19 impacted our businesses and lockdown was started I probably wouldn’t be far off the mark in saying you are highly dissatisfied.
At the commencement of the lockdown did you in fact have a strong vision of how you were going to get through it. In all likelihood you didn’t. The point here and if you reflect on your own level of dissatisfaction it impacts our ability to take positive action, essentially creates high resistance any first steps we need to take. So, before we go on to look at what impact we can have through pivoting our business I want you to think deeply about what your business will look like when we get through this crisis. A great question to ask yourself is how I will come out of this crisis stronger then when I entered.
Getting ahead of change
The first point of reference here when we look at pivoting is to recognise the fact that for many businesses the environment changed. In fact, for many businesses the way in which we do business and functioned changed. This change was the conduit from which we could start to look to pivot our business. The point here was to start asking the question early to look for change and opportunity to reshape what we do in our business to fit the current environment.
Sadly, for many businesses they allowed change to be forced upon them and accepted that they might need to furlough their workers, close the business, reduce functionality or just shut up shop. There are also countless examples where businesses seized the opportunity to pivot swiftly and are now functioning and in some cases exceling.
Here are just some examples.
- A pub closes only to reopen as a farm shop selling its produce in a drive thru.
- A metal fabrication company ceases to produce its core service only to reopen selling bespoke dumbbells.
- Distilleries shifted their focus towards making hand sanitizers.
- Blind companies shifted to making COVID-19 sales counter barriers.
These are just a few examples and there are many more that have had great success
100 times pivot
One of the key areas of misunderstanding the business pivot is taking the view that we must move the entire business function in a new direction. This isn’t the case. Taking a view of small pivots within a business can have a massive impact in terms of overall shift within the business. Just think for a moment of the small pivots you can make within your business, in sales, in marketing, in operations, in products and services, in distribution and you begin to see a compound effect of small changes having big results in the business.
Selling toilet roll, looking for opportunity
There are also opportunities where your business might be able to sell its version of toilet roll. Essentially looking for services and products which your business can pivot towards and have a similar impact in terms of the crisis situation. In other words, being able to sell a product or service which has a direct positive impact in this crisis. And let’s be clear there are businesses right now which are busier than they have ever been.
If your business doesn’t have this type of opportunity, then it maybe you must look towards supporting those businesses that do. What can your business do to support those businesses that are in fact now selling toilet roll. This is looking in a slightly different area for opportunity. Remember in your marketplace it is highly likely that someone somewhere is driving through this business.
The whole business pivot
There may be opportunities where the entire business model could pivot. Now this may feel quite scary to some, one of the ways to look at this is through the glasses of diversification. For many business owners right now, they have one business focus and good or bad have probably had challenges as a result of this crisis. Looking at the whole business pivot could open opportunities long term for new business ventures.
There is every likelihood that we will find ourselves in a crisis of this similar fashion again in the future, imagine if you have businesses which allow you agility in terms of business functionality. Having a multiple of different businesses could in fact give you greater opportunity in such situations.
Your product ladders
What does your product ladder look like now? It’s likely that through this challenging time you may have come across a level of service that currently your business doesn’t facilitate. So, you may find within your business now you have a whole new product ladder to establish in terms of your products and services.
Marketing and sales
Right now, one of the key aspects that must pivot is your marketing and your sales. Your marketing needs to shift in terms of how you reach your audience with a focus on creating inbound interest. Look at your marketing in terms of your digital presence because the fact is your competition is doing that right now.
Sales needs to shift in terms of how your sales process currently engages your prospects. The real key here is to sell with compassion, understanding the circumstances that customers find themselves in and how through engaging with you you’re able to ease the burden and help them through the value you offer.
In summary
In this time of crisis where change has been imposed upon us and we have had to shift the way in which we deliver our business or indeed how our business has been impeded or in some cases improved we need to have agility. Actively looking to where we can shift our business, implementing change is essentially what the pivot is all about. Whether you look at 100 small pivots or a single business pivot the opportunity is there for you to find.
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