The Future Doesn’t Fit in the Containers of the Past

Have you ever tried putting something back in the box it came in? A new television, monitor or piece of furniture. Something with approximately 437 pieces of Styrofoam. It fit perfectly when you opened it. Then, somehow, twenty minutes later, getting everything back into that same box requires an engineering degree, three people and language you probably shouldn’t use around kids. Of course, it fit before. The box was designed for what was inside it then. Things changed. Sometimes, things simply don’t fit back into their old containers.

Neither does the future.

In his article From Caterpillar to Butterfly, Rishad Tobaccowala makes a powerful observation about transformation:

“The future does not fit in the containers of the past.”

Think about that from a sales perspective. Our customers have changed. Their customers have changed. Technology has evolved. Media consumption has shifted. Competition has changed. Artificial intelligence is reshaping how people research companies, evaluate options and make buying decisions. Yet, how often do we try to squeeze all that change into the same containers we’ve used for years?

• The same prospecting approach.
• The same appointment pitch.
• The same needs analysis.
• The same proposal template.
• The same presentation.
• The same packages.
• The same way of measuring success.

Then, we wonder why things feel harder. Maybe the marketplace isn’t the problem.

Maybe the container is.

And here’s where it gets uncomfortable. Sometimes we don’t need to improve what we’re doing. We need to question why we’re doing it at all. It’s easy to confuse improvement with innovation. We make the proposal prettier, shorten the presentation, automate the email, add another feature to the package and use new technology to make an old process faster. All potentially useful. But there’s a dangerous question we don’t ask often enough:

What if we’ve simply built a better version of the wrong thing?

One of the most dangerous things about an old container is that it usually worked once. That’s why we kept it. The prospecting approach worked. The presentation worked. The package worked. The questions worked. The measurement worked. Success turned a good idea into a standard practice. Then the marketplace changed. The practice didn’t.

There’s nothing wrong with respecting what brought us here. Many of those practices helped build successful careers and companies. But there’s a big difference between respecting what brought us here and assuming it will get us there.

Imagine walking into a prospect’s business today and asking, “Tell me about your marketing plan.” That’s not a bad question. But what if we thought differently?

• “What has changed about your customer in the last two years?”
• “What are customers doing before they ever contact you?”
• “What questions are they asking Google or AI about businesses like yours?”
• “Where are you losing opportunities that you can’t currently see?”
• “What’s working today that you’re not convinced will still work two years from now?”

Those questions create a very different conversation. You’re no longer asking a customer to explain yesterday so you can sell them something today. You’re exploring tomorrow together. That’s what great sellers bring to customers. Not just products. Perspective. They notice changes customers may not have noticed yet. They challenge assumptions. They ask questions that make people pause and think. They help customers see around corners. And sometimes that requires questioning our own assumptions first.

Look around your sales process this week. Find one container. Maybe it’s how you prospect. Maybe it’s the questions you ask. Maybe it’s how you present ideas. Maybe it’s something your company has done for so long that nobody remembers why you started doing so. Then ask:

If we hadn’t already done it this way, would we choose to start doing it this way today?

That’s a very different question from “How can we make this work better?” One improves the container. The other gives you permission to build a new one.

I think there’s a reason Rishad titled his article From Caterpillar to Butterfly. A caterpillar doesn’t become a butterfly by becoming a better caterpillar. It doesn’t crawl faster, grow more legs or become more efficient at eating leaves. It becomes something different.

Maybe that’s the challenge facing all of us right now. Sometimes getting better means improving what you’re already doing. And sometimes it means having the courage to ask whether you should still be doing it at all.

Don’t spend all your energy trying to make the old container hold the future.

Think different.

Then build something the future actually fits into.

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.