Moving Words – Overcoming the Fear of New Technology

Written by Timothy Brady.

You’ve been there. Done the research, crunched the numbers, looked at worst-case scenarios. Made every effort to be sure you’ve turned over each stone. In other words, you’ve done your homework.

Now the walk into the decision-maker’s office to present all the reasons why this technology is exactly what your moving company needs to become more efficient, provide better customer service, generate more profit for the company – and van operators. You even present the possible negatives along with proof the positives are still the stronger side of the coin.

The decision-maker sits and listens, expressionless; taps a pencil on the desk during your presentation. Then when you’ve completed your proposal, he/she looks up, places the pencil carefully at the desk calendar corner, sighs, and says, “Looks like you did the research. Interesting idea. However, I’ll have to kick it around a bit.”

You know – and not because you’ve invested a large amount of your time on this – but your research said it’s the right change for the company. The benefits and profit far outweigh the costs of this technology. So what do you do now?

Here’s a list of suggestions to assist your company’s decision-maker in that determination.

Many times when presenting an idea we’ve invested a lot of time and energy into, we tend to be far too conceptual in presenting our research results. Be more concrete about what it would take to implement the technology. Be specific about who would need to do what, the learning curve to get the employees who will be using it up to speed, and how much time and money will be saved once the technology is fully functioning. Demonstrate how moving forward with this is far better than the status quo.

If you’re still meeting with resistance, move from selling your idea to asking questions, so you’ll understand the decision-maker’s reluctance.

• What’s the worst-case scenario you see?
• Do we need to inform any other department heads about the pros and cons?
• What’s your main concern about this technology?
• What do you think the impact would be on our ability to service our shippers?

In other words, dig to find the source of his/her reluctance so you know if you need further research.

Next, solicit the assistance of others within your company to help view the pluses and minuses of the technology. Tag along to answer questions when the decision-maker is getting others on board while introducing the idea of implantation. If dispatch, safety, claims and sales will all be using the technology simultaneously, bring key people from each department into the conversation individually to address that department’s needs, wants and concerns. Enlist all of them to coordinate how they’ll work together to benefit the company.

But – make it so backing out or postponing can be done gracefully and without major impact. With new technology, many times there’s a paralysis which occurs because of fear that implementing the technology means it’s installed throughout the entire company from the onset – and permanently so, no matter how disruptive the change.

Work out a solution that brings the technology online a step at a time. Try it with one office. Apprehensive about the customer experience? Use the new technology with a small subset of customers and carefully monitor their experiences. It’s always simpler to start with a pilot program than to persuade a risk-adverse decision-maker to make a “permanent,” wide-sweeping change.

Finally, if you truly believe the technology contains multiple benefits, is worth the time and the effort, don’t give up. Remember, there’s nothing more convincing than a fervently-impassioned individual doing the right thing for the right reasons. You can say, “I told you so,” later, to yourself.