Karie Kaufmann invited attendees at the ASI Digital Expo to engage in a sobering exercise in hindsight: “If you knew 10 months ago we’d be here now, what would you have done differently?” the owner and president of Action Business Coaching asked during her Wednesday, Feb. 3 keynote. The point wasn’t to wallow in regrets and lament the toughness of 2020, but rather to help position business leaders for success going forward. Her next question: “If you knew we’d still be here 12 months from now, what could you do now?”

Karie Kaufmann, owner and president of Action Business Coaching

It's not about predicting the future, but about mapping out goals that get you where you want to be. “We have no freaking idea of what this year is going to hold,” Kaufmann said. “This is why we do short-term planning that connects to longer-term goals.” To be successful, you must act, assess, adjust and then constantly repeat that cycle, she added.

During a well-received and thought-provoking talk, Kaufmann, who has coached more than 1,000 businesses and high-performing executives, shared three things promotional products distributors need to do to rejuvenate their companies in 2021.

Old Industry, New Thinking

First off, you must inject new thinking into an old industry. It’s easy to get caught up in old patterns of thinking and let your cognitive bias shade the way you look at the world, Kaufmann said. “Once you have a belief, a belief’s only job is to validate its existence,” she added. “We take that emotion, and we project it onto everything else. This is why we get that feeling of when it rains, it pours.”

Despite the many challenges of 2020 that have continued into the new year, “There’s always opportunity, even in the face of lots of mess and lots of adversity,” Kaufmann said. But to find those opportunities, you need to change your mindset and move beyond “legacy thinking.”

She gave the example of Microsoft a few years back working hard to create an MP3 player superior to the iPod. By many measures, that’s exactly what they ended up doing. “Meanwhile, Apple was busy making the iPhone,” she added. “When you chase your competitors, the best you can get is to beat them by a little bit. But then what? What will you do after that?”

Increase Your Influence

Now is not the time to be targeting broadly, Kaufmann cautioned. Instead, distributors should drill down on who their core customer is: “Who really values what you offer? Who’s willing to buy at a profit? Who has the ability to buy multiple times or refer?”

Once you’ve narrowed that down, it’s time to wow clients by understanding their frustrations and fears and helping them move toward their aspirations. Figuring those points out will be the “key to unlocking your marketing language,” she said.

“There’s always opportunity, even in the face of lots of mess and lots of adversity.” - Karie Kaufmann, Action Business Coaching

It’s also important to figure out what competitive advantage your company has – and if your company doesn’t have an edge, figure out what you want it to be and how to get there. Kaufmann encouraged attendees to sit down with their teams and brainstorm the following questions: What promises would you have to make to ensure your company was the obvious choice? What would you need to do so clients would pay a premium to work with you? What would you need to do to entice clients to buy, even if it wasn’t originally in their budget? Come up with the grandiose, magic wand wishes before narrowing down to the nitty-gritty. “Start big, you’ll have no problem whittling it down later,” Kaufmann said.

Build Momentum

The final area Kaufmann focused on was momentum, noting that it can go in both directions, either working for you or against you. Taking action, she said, creates momentum, which will bring opportunities – even if they’re not directly related to the original action taken. “Any time one of my clients takes a big action, it gets results,” Kaufmann said.

Instead of focusing on “lagging indicators,” like yearly, quarterly or even monthly progress, Kaufmann encouraged distributors to focus on short-term sprint goals, taking things in 10-day increments, to get you to your desired goals at the end of the year. Achieving small, measurable goals one pay period at a time will help put you on a trajectory for success.

“Not everyone will win in 2021, but the doers will,” Kaufmann said.