Why it pays to be proactive

Apr 13 2009

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the importance of being proactive. It was a big topic of conversation with Brian Patrick Cork on our radio show last month and numerous events and conversations since has kept it in my head.

It seems that a lot of people have expectations of success, both personally and in business. But what are you doing to achieve that success? I was talking with a corporate manager who had given had review meetings with each of her five employees. The two who had been at the company the longest had questions: “I’ve been here for three years, why haven’t I been promoted? Why have we hired other people from the outside?”

Her response was simple, “You didn’t ask for it. You didn’t apply, you never expressed any interest in those other jobs and you never even expressed a desire or willingness to take on more responsibility. Why should we have considered you?”

The same thing holds true in business and certainly in sales and marketing. Just “being there” isn’t enough. You need to decide what you want your company to achieve and you need to take action. The time is past for many of us where we can simply hang a shingle and expect business to line up outside our front door.

Whether they are friends, clients, prospects, colleagues, vendors or partners you should never be afraid to tell people what you want for your business and how they might help you achieve it. All too often we wait for opportunities to come to us when we should be kicking doors open for ourselves.