Dissonance Creates a Compelling Case for Change

Dissonance. The word means a lack of harmony. It means something isn’t right. There is a tension that you can feel. It’s annoying, and then it is agitating.

Dissonance is an excellent word to describe the state in which you find many of your dream clients, those clients for whom you could create breathtaking, jaw dropping, earth shattering value and who would be willing to pay you for it. But there is one problem: they’ve learned to live with the dissonance. The status quo has taken root.

Dissonance Is an Opportunity

Dissonance is an opportunity. It’s an itch. You can use the dissonance that your dream client feels to create an opportunity.

You can explain the source of the dissonance. You can provide a label, give it a name, and objectify it. Once it is an object, you can point to the source of the dissonance, the root cause.

Maybe the source is a major change in economic conditions. Or perhaps the root cause is that the assumptions underlying your dream client’s business model are no longer true, that their model is now threatened. Whatever the cause, you can teach your dream client what has happened, what has changed, and why they need to change.

Making the Case for Change

The dissonance doesn’t come with its own proof. But that proof is available. There are news stories being written about the cause of the dissonance right now, if you are willing to invest in reading The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Economist. The proof is already being written about in business journals and spoken about at conferences. Fortunately, your dream clients are heads down working, and they expect some savvy, value creating salesperson to be looking out for them. If it’s not you, it could be.

The compelling case for change isn’t easily made. It takes an investment of time and energy to build a burning platform. It’s even more challenging to jump off the burning platform and move to something better. But the compelling case for change begins with dissonance.

• In what areas do your dream clients feel dissonance now?
• How to you agitate that dissonance and teach your dream clients the root cause and the compelling reason to change?
• What evidence is available to help you make your case?