How To Get Away With Murder

Here’s a new tv show. How to get away with murder comes from the same stable as the enjoyable romp that is Scandal (which I first knew in SA as the much better titled The Fixer). I’ve not seen it. I have though, caught the trailer. Whence my screengrab above hails.

Blackboard and chalk. Cutting edge.

The star explains to student lawyers her three-card trick to ‘get away’ with it when defending a homicidal crim in court;

discredit the witness
introduce a new suspect
bury the evidence

My solution Sales antennae immediately sniffed a parallel with trying to shift the staid position of an obstinate buyer’s settled state.

discredit the status quo
introduce empowerment for those feeling the pain
bury obstacles to change

These could be a revealing triple-pronged prism through which to judge your current forecast.

Discredit the status quo: There must be some serious disadvantage(s) in the present position. Identify them. Document them. Quantify them. Emotionalise them. I’ve blogged in the past about reversion point reversal (like with the Scottish referendum, citing Mandela & disruption). A vital component of many a solution sale against entrenched leave-things-as-they-are opinion. The anti-change, anti-progress camp must be tackled. Precisely why is where they’re at today so demonstrably bad?

Introduce empowerment for those feeling the pain: Someone, somewhere is always seething. They know change is good. They sense change must happen. Find them. Work out what clout they have. Lever said sway. Make it sing. Let the rest of the buying unit dance along.

Bury obstacles to change: Change is scary. We need risk removal. We must mitigate against the perceived turbulence of embarking on an endeavour to do something different. How can you make the switch as simple to enact as possible. Outflank support for how things are (or incumbent) with lathers of hand-holding, fast fail alerts and project integration with buyer daily routines.

So, on your blackboard of choice, get cracking…