I was watching the movie Deep Impact the other day and the reporter (Tea Leoni)who had been chosen to be saved asked her mom (Vanessa Redgrave) why? Her mother said that people need continuity to embrace change.
Which I thought was really interesting. I mean think about it for a minute. As marketers, one of the biggest challenges we have is creating a shift in status quo that allows us to generate enough interest and engagement with our products that sales can sell them. But, complex sales carry a bigger threat of risk and have much longer consideration, proof and commitment cycles than simpler decisions.
Would it help us shift the status quo if we could simplify the complexity? Yes, of course. And many of us have embraced the iterative project that gets our foot in the door and gives our company time to build a relationship to gain a bigger share of future projects the customer is planning.
But, simplicity and continuity are two different things. Continuity is constancy and stability. Simplicity is breaking things down into digestible bits and ensuring there's clarity around them. Simplicity is about making things easy, but they may still be new things, which is risky.
What I'm proposing is that continuity is the reduction of the perception of risk through emphasizing the things that will remain stable during the project. The idea that by lessening the concept of disruption, your customer may be more inclined to engage with your offering.
Continuity means giving your customer something safe to hold onto as they embrace the idea of the change your offering will bring—all at the same time. I know when we talk about simplicity we think our prospects and customers get that part, but do they really?
Change is a good thing, even though our tendency is to fight it. Companies can't grow without it. But a sense of continuity may be just the safety zone we can add to achieve a better customer acquisition rate. Not only that, but think about the end users affected during a project. Continuity could be an adoption driver for them, adding a level of success to projects that builds better long-term relationships.
