There is one thing stronger than all the armies in the world, and that is an idea whose time has come. —Victor Hugo

You will be far more successful harnessing the forces of change than fighting them.

If after performing the force field analysis and understanding the client’s life space, you determine that your product or service does not help the client make the desired change, you have three choices:

1. Disqualify the customer from your sales forecast and keep looking for prospective customers.
2. Change your product to fit the customer’s needs by customizing your product, developing a new product, or acquiring the rights to sell a finished product.
3. Change the client’s perception of his situation and the forces influencing it. The process of changing a customer’s perception is what we typically think of as “selling.” The difference is that the change leader is not selling a product or service, but rather is selling a different view of the forces influencing the client.

Whether you align your company to the customer’s force field, or you change the customer’s perception of it, you are harnessing the forces of change and guiding your company and the customer to a place that achieves the customer’s desired result. When you have done that, you have become a true change leader.
 

Harness the forces of change by:

Be mindful that the customer’s perception is his reality. So, you will need both to work within the customer’s reality and work to expand the customer’s view of reality.

Align with forces, rather than against them, whenever possible. Wait, if necessary, until forces act to remove barriers. Be careful that perceptions are “accurate”—both the customer’s and yours.