Pause-Push-Pulse

British university biologists coined a great term during their study of what happened to wildlife when humans en masse went into lockdown; the anthropause.

Now no longer shielding from that coronavirus, they suggest we now enter a frenzied phase of catching up activity; the anthropulse.

I couldn't help but think that exiting all things pandemic now gives us solution sellers a lovely chance to rise above any competition with this evocative framing.

Many a commercial, enterprise, B2B buyer paused all but cost-of-goods related spend. In particular, those not involved in 'essential' services, such as in the food chain, its delivery or health. For two long years.

That covered many, many of us.

I was also reminded in part of the classic change management cycle of Kurt Lewin; unfreeze-change-refreeze.

Blending these two ideas, you get first a 'pause'. A period of reflection. Status quo in situ. No true movement forward.

Then some kind of action or event occurs to tip everything upside down.

Which when done, unleashes a 'pulse'. Excited growth. Pursuit of a new aim. Staking of a fresh claim.

I plumped for labelling the change maker as 'push'. Other monosyllabic words beginning with 'p' doubtless available.

But I like the fact that you may be either pushed into doing something different, or strive to push in a new direction off your own bat. Or both.

We likely all have our version of the pause. Where it hit. What it meant.

As well as the push. Sectors in stasis. A kind of suspended animation, corporate ennui and removal of time horizon focus.

That is now over. It is time to pulse. Make it motoric, rhythmic and melodic.

Competition will be sating pent up demand alone.

We need to look to the future. To sustainable progress.

The world has changed. Despite what aged chief execs on their multimillion stock packages say and their Canute-defiance that we must all return to the office, at once.

Why not ask your prospects how they see this change?

Ask them what their pause felt like.

Ask how they're planning to pulse.

As for us, it's not just the newly found tech that we must master. Although naturally I am bound to bang the drum for the untapped power of video selling. It is that we are surely in the next K-Wave. The 6th cycle, with growth now in play.

One thing Russian we can safely embrace.

Kondratieff proved right yet again.

A shakeout is coming. A period of unprecedented upheaval. Entire industries born, altered ways of doing business, and different approaches to how, where and why the workplace functions all set to take hold from the merge, remix and invention of what the past decade germinated.

Get on board. Ride the wave. Start with incorporating how video calls fit in with your buyers and you won't be among the many who this time next year don't understand why their sales have slid.

Get pulsing.