Moving Up To Plan B | Agency Sales Magazine

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A sluggishly rebounding economy is likely going to be the best thing to happen to my business for 2013. It could be for yours too. Seriously.

The “plan” since 2008 has been to survive. The prize for outlasting a recession is the impending boom of a recovery. It always happens that way — heck they teach it in schools. For us reps, we wouldn’t have to do much strategically — just hang in there and then get out of the way. The economy would be cranked up, employment would be soaring, and the deficit/budget would be at manageable levels. In my Rust Belt region, manufacturing would be a huge beneficiary of the rebound. The industries for automotive, mills, mines, oil/gas, petrochem, injection molding, casting — they would all be booming. Construction would naturally follow. And all of those working in these industries would need a bunch of our safety products. “Rainbows and butterflies.” The plan was going to work, if just….

Mike Tyson (yeah, him) has a great quote: “Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face.” To me, the quote should continue, “… it’s what happens next that sets the course for winning the fight.” Most in the business community hoped/planned for a strong rebound in 2012, and we heard it was coming. It felt like it was almost here — but it vanished. We got punched in the face.

The strong rebound might still come right? Maybe, but I wouldn’t suggest waiting on it. I suggest moving to plan B. Oftentimes I like plan B because plan B works. In my experience, plan A is usually an unrealistic idea that in hindsight was really more of a “hope-to” rather than a plan. Plan A is running a 4-minute mile — where plan B is running a 10k race. Plan A is Super Bowl MVP, plan B is coaching your kids football team to the city championship. Plan A is having “6-pack abs,” plan B is losing 20 pounds and keeping it off. Plan A is curing cancer, while plan B is running a successful rep agency. Possibly the key to a strong plan B is to have an appropriately unattainable plan A. Certainly plan B is not “settling” — it is what you are now doing to win the fight.

Any successful plan should not be formed based on an economic windfall, but hopefully from strategies developed by good, sound business principles. Therefore our plan B will be formulated from strategic conversations with our principals — possibly with the guidance of a consultant/facilitator. We courageously ask them what it is that we can do to become more effective and are optimistic that we might be surprised by the results. We have open conversations with our salespeople and our distributors — both having an untapped wealth of experience and knowledge, and a mutual interest in success. We reach out to education/training sources, as they mold the minds of the future of our industry. We network with other reps (of course MANA can help), as this is a continually valuable resource for idea sharing. We network outside of our industry in order to gain a broader perspective. And we implement a more grass-roots effort in asking need-based questions to those actually using and specifying our products.

These are all things that we should be experts at doing by now, except that plan A was getting in the way.