Before we get too deep into this blog, it’s important to understand what VUCA is. In 1987, the concept of VUCA was created, based on theories by economists Warren Bennis and Burt Nanus as a way to understand the ever-changing market more dynamically. Since then, this concept has been used to analyze the market and inform business decisions.
What Does VUCA Stand For?
VUCA is an acronym that covers four concepts:
Volatility: How rapidly will an industry or market shift? This includes changes in demand, price inflations, and other abrupt swings that can influence market trends.
Uncertainty: How difficult it is to predict future events or results? Despite constant monitoring and analysis, there are situations where even the most well-informed predictions can be proven false due to outside forces. This especially applies when the information itself is unclear, thus making the future harder to predict.
Complexity: How many variables are there to consider and how many connections are between them? The greater the number of variables in a situation, the more that can happen, especially if there are connections that can lead to a domino effect. The more information there is to analyze and understand, the more difficult it will be to come to a rational decision.
Ambiguity: How much information is lacking? This can include inconsistent, missing, or even flat-out false information. Unlike uncertainty, in which you can find a clear end goal from the information, or complexity, in which it’s just a lot to understand, there is no analyzable information, making it even more difficult to draw any solid conclusions.
How Can VUCA Be Applied to the World of Sales?
VUCA can be easily applied to any industry and is an incredibly useful way to understand current and future market environments. There are five primary ways understanding VUCA can help your company stay relevant in a constantly changing market, regardless of what you’re bringing to the table:
1. Learn to Adapt
One of the primary elements of VUCA is that anything can go wrong at any time. If you want to succeed as a sales professional, then you must learn how to adapt to your environment. Staying up to date with the market through external sources such as magazines, blogs and podcasts, and discussing industry trends with your teams will help you gather the information you need to adapt.
2. Gain Confidence in Yourself and Your Team
VUCA also reveals a lot of hard truths. Therefore, you and your team need to be prepared for anything that the market might throw at you. Finding creative ways to build confidence in yourself as a salesperson and for your team to gain confidence as a cohesive unit will help you cope with whatever comes your way.
3. Accept Novel Ideas
When it comes to dealing with VUCA, it’s important you keep an open mind. Allow your peers to voice their out-of-the-box ideas and listen to them, because in all likelihood, this will be uncharted territory and you never know what’s going to work. Keeping this flexible and agile approach could help your company to potential growth and being able to stay relevant in a changing landscape.
4. Build Bridges with Clients and Colleagues
Having a trustworthy team and loyal clients will help you to confidently face any complexity. Investing in relationships will allow you to build a tight knit community that can sustain your business despite the uncertainty a volatile market environment can bring. While these relationships won’t change the situation you find thrust upon you, they will positively influence the decisions you make
5. Stay Determined
Having to deal with VUCA is not ideal. In fact, it can be downright harrowing. What’s important is that you keep moving forward, adapt to the changes that come your way with confidence, foster a sense of ingenuity in your team, and build up your business community. Above all, stay determined and keep plugging away. It won’t last forever.
