Tipping Points

Recently, I sat down with a prospect who shared his growth plans with me.  He laid out a couple of action steps, a little bit of a timeline and then said, “I figure we should ‘tip’ in about nine months.”

For those that haven’t read Malcolm Gladwell’s first book The Tipping Point, the ‘tip’ my prospect was referring to is that point where some phenomena (in this case, my prospect’s offering) goes from being a small presence to becoming an overwhelming one.  What Gladwell referred to as an epidemic.

I happen to think that The Tipping Point is a book that everyone should read, certainly anyone interested in growing their business.  I think the book provides terrific insights to how and why certain things happen, and it even gives clues to what someone can do to increase the chances that something will ‘tip.’  However, anyone who reads The Tipping Point, and comes away thinking that they can in any way predict what will or won’t tip (let alone when it will tip – “I figure we should ‘tip’ in a bout nine months.”) has certainly missed the point of the book, and probably doesn’t have a solid idea about growth in general either.

Look, there are certainly things a business can do that will lead to short-term and even predictable results – but that by no means ensures success.  Do you want to increase the number of qualified leads in your pipeline dramatically over the next 30 – 60 days?  Well, implement a coordinated, comprehensive telemarketing effort.  Sure, it will cost money (probably quite a bit), but it will provide to more leads.  But it doesn’t mean that you will ‘tip’.  It doesn’t even increase the likelihood that you will tip.

You see, you don’t control whether or not you tip – the market does.  The best you can do is to create something worthy of tipping and pay attention to the actions you are taking.  In my opinion, an attempt to manipulate a tip contributes to the environment that prevents a tip.  So, stop focusing on tipping or not tipping.  We can’t all be Hush Puppies (read the book if you don’t know what I mean).  What we can be is the best to the people we are dedicated to.  After that, it’s not really up to us.