What does it take to make you tip?

We all like to think of ourselves as being open to change and new ideas, but when it comes down to it, reality can be very different. After all, change requires energy, and with our home and work lives seemingly busier by the day, that energy can often be in short supply. Somehow it seems easier to stick with what we know.

So what does it take for us to change? We all have our own triggers. Some people are truly energised by change, embracing the experience of learning and growth. Others need reassurance and validation, waiting to see whether the change is going to catch on before following the early adopters. And there are those who will change only when the change has become the new status quo.

Chatting over coffee today with one of my colleagues, he told me about one of his accounts that had suddenly sprung to life. He’d closed the sale six months earlier with a hugely enthusiastic client. But her enthusiasm hadn’t translated into action. She’d stuck with the processes she knew. Whenever my colleague called her to ask why she wasn’t using her account, she would say that she was planning to when the next position to fill came around. But somehow, when the next vacancy needed filling, it wasn’t the right time. It was never the right time. Her account was in hibernation. She was the lead recruiter for a major bank. We have many European banks on our client list. It wasn’t that she’d selected a bad tool. It wasn’t that the tool was difficult to use. Rather, it was never the right time to start.

So when her account started receiving recorded interviews, my colleague was curious to find out why. Her story was simple. After a day spent interviewing candidates, our client realised that she had nothing to show for her time except for some large travel expenses and a full mailbox awaiting her in the office the next day. Not a single one of the candidates whose CVs had shown such promise had turned out to be right for the position. A whole day wasted! And that was her lightbulb moment. She’d had to reach a point of total frustration to turn to a tool that had been available to her for six months. No prompting phone call or special offer had any impact on her. She had to find her own tipping point. There’s a lesson in there somewhere for everyone selling innovation.