It was character that got us out of bed, commitment that moved us into action, and discipline that enabled us to follow through. —Zig Ziglar

The Six Change Types model I described in Forceful Selling describes six common ways that people adapt to the forces they experience. The first change-type is the “Chicken.”

The Chicken is one of the two neurotic change types. This person is not able to adapt successfully to any situation and simply keeps changing. This person appears to go randomly from change to change, oblivious to any risk, and he does not make significant progress on any change attempted. The Chicken has a short attention span, a high level of anxiety, and is emotionally unstable. Since the person often changes before having an opportunity to learn and become proficient, his confidence is damaged and his driving need is esteem. Because this person always makes changes, it may appear that he is open to making adjustments in notions and activities. However, the person is actually reluctant to commit himself and never completely follows through. Therefore, his openness is only superficial. The figure below shows the Chicken’s profile.

As a salesperson and change leader, your resources will be depleted before you are able to help the Chicken complete a change. Therefore, you should quickly disengage from customers who display the characteristics of the Chicken profile.

Can you think of people in your business or life who have one or more of those characteristics? Are they easy to deal with? Or do you try to avoid them?

Perform an ongoing return on investment (ROI) calculation to determine whether further investment will be profitable. If not, stop your losses and move on.

Use the Six Changes Types model to characterize people’s change response. Disengage from Chickens. Continuously calculate your ROI and know your investment stop loss.