When Was Your Last Upgrade?

Fall is one of my favorite times of year. It’s Apple-picking season! No, not the fruit—the latest technology from Apple. New devices. New features. New operating systems. New reasons for Apple to convince us that the perfectly good phone in our pockets suddenly isn't good enough.

My phone updated again.

I’m not exactly sure what changed. A few icons moved. The most radical change appears to be the brand-new, finally usable Siri. Something works differently. There are probably twenty new features I’ll discover by accident over the next six months.

But here’s what I do know: the phone in my pocket today is dramatically more capable than it was when I bought it. I didn’t have to replace the device to get those new capabilities. The hardware stayed the same. The operating system kept getting better.

Longtime RAB friend and brilliant writer Rishad Tobaccowala made a fascinating observation in a recent article, From Caterpillar to Butterfly. He notes that the devices in our pockets have received roughly 17 or 18 operating system updates over the past 18 years.

Then he asks a much more uncomfortable question:

How many times have we upgraded our own mental operating systems?

Our phones automatically tell us when the old operating system is no longer good enough.

Software Update Available.

But nobody sends us that notification. There’s no pop-up Monday morning that says: Jeff 3.7 is no longer compatible with the current marketplace. Upgrade recommended. Maybe there should be. While technology has been changing, customers have been changing too.

The way they research has changed. The way they communicate has changed. The way they consume media has changed. The way they evaluate companies has changed. The way they buy has changed. And now, AI is changing how they find information, compare options, solve problems and make decisions.

Yet, sometimes we approach this radically different marketplace with the same mental operating system we were running five, ten or even twenty years ago.

We prospect the same way. We ask the same questions. We make the same presentations. We sell the same products. We use the same arguments. And when those tactics stop delivering the results they once did, our instinct can be to do more of them. Name me a leader who doesn’t want “more.”

• More calls.
• More emails.
• More proposals.
• More activity.

But what if the problem isn’t effort? What if you’re running outdated software?

Thinking differently doesn’t mean abandoning everything you know. Your experience matters. Your relationships matter. Your expertise matters. An operating system upgrade doesn’t throw away the phone. It makes the phone capable of doing things it couldn’t do before.

That’s exactly what professional development should do for us. New ideas. New questions. New tools. New perspectives. New ways of creating value.

The best sellers I’ve known throughout my career share something in common: they’re incredibly curious. They don’t assume that what worked yesterday will work tomorrow. They experiment. They learn. They challenge their assumptions. They remain students of their customers, their business and their craft.

Tobaccowala writes that successful people and companies often aren’t defeated by competitors. They defeat themselves by failing to change their frameworks, worldviews and approaches as the world changes around them.

That’s worth thinking about.

Right now, somewhere in your market is a salesperson who doesn’t have your experience. They don’t have your relationships. They don’t know everything you know. But they may be learning faster than you are. In a rapidly changing marketplace, the greatest competitive advantage may not be what you already know. It may be how quickly you’re willing to learn what you don’t.

So, here’s your challenge this week.

Look at one part of your sales process - prospecting, appointments, research, needs analysis, proposals, presentations or closing - and ask:

If I were designing this from scratch today, would I still do it this way?

Don’t defend the old version. Get curious about the next one.

Because somewhere along the way, while our phones were automatically updating, we became responsible for updating ourselves. And right now, there's a notification blinking on the screen: “SOFTWARE UPDATE AVAILABLE.”

The only question is whether you'll click: “INSTALL NOW.”

Think Big. Make Big Things Happen.

Jeff Schmidt is the SVP of Professional Development. You can reach him at Jeff.Schmidt@RAB.com. You can also connect with him on X, YouTube, and LinkedIn.