Winning the Crowd

When a corporation is seeking to roll out a new product or service they use the innovation adoption lifecycle to guide their behavior. They look at the market as divided up into five parts. The first 2.5% are called Innovators, the second 13.5% are called the Early Adopters, the third 34% are the Early Majority, the fourth 34% are the Late Majority, the fifth section of the market is referred to as the Laggards.

The innovators are the creators of the gizmos and gadgets. They will buy new products to take it apart to see how it works and make efforts to replicate or improve on it. The Early adopters are the first to try something once it hits the market, they are the ones who wait in front of Foot Locker for hours to get the first pair hot off the truck. They are willing to take the chance that the first version is flawed to be first to have it.  The next two bigger sections are the Early Majority and the Late Majority. The Early Majority will get on board but only after they have seen others buy in and seem to be happy. The Late Majority won’t get on board until they’ve seen others buy in and through thorough research confirmed that it’s a good product. The Laggards are people who are notoriously last to get on board. They are the people who only buy cordless phones because no one will sell them a phone with a chord.  

The problem in business or why product roll outs fail is because inexperienced companies market directly at the biggest portion of the market, makes sense because most of the people are there. The problem is, that portion of the market won’t respond on its own, they are waiting to see how the rest of the market responds. It would be the equivalent of just announcing on Facebook that you had a book for sale, it won’t work very well. You have to get people on board first, then others will follow. The Innovation Adoption Lifecycle suggests that you need to market to the Innovators and Early Adopters, then the Early Majority and Late Majority will follow. You have to aggressively pursue people who will make that first purchase and will share reviews with others. The Laggards will resist until they can’t anymore, studies have repeatedly shown that we can’t rely on that portion of the Market.

I can hear you saying to yourself as you read this, ‘What does this all mean to me as a leader?’ I’m glad you asked, the very principle that works in the roll out of a new product or service will work for you as you transition into a new leadership role. I can tell you that I have tried it both ways and have suffered as a result of not knowing this concept and I have applied it and have experienced great successes leading people.

Whether your team is 10, or 100 or 1000, your people are divided the same way. There is a group of people who will like you no matter what you do, there is a group waiting to like you, there is a group waiting for first and second reports to make their decision and there is a group you will never win over and the percentages are about the same. Just like in marketing, you will not win the majority if you do not win over the early groups, just like in purchasing a product, they wait for the reports to make their decision. All of this indicates that your first impression matters a lot more than you probably think because it will ripple through the other groups on your team way before you get a chance to leave your own stamp. People like their information easy to access and digest so they usually use small bits of information to make their conclusions then spend the rest of the relationship trying to prove themselves right, a concept psychologists call implicit egotism.

If you want to win over a group of people, pay attention to the first impressions you make. You usually don’t know which group is which when you take over a team, even if you were promoted from within the team you may not be as good at classifying people as you think. Also, it does not mean that you should serve one group and expect the rest to take care of itself, nor should you ignore the Laggards because you’re ‘never going to win them over anyway. Over the course of your leadership you are going to share love equally all around your organization. You will prioritize the first impression, not to the exclusion of the rest of the relationship. You can definitely lead and be successful without a purposeful first impression but your relationships and your impact won’t be nearly as powerful.

In short, the purpose of this article is to illustrate for you the importance of first impressions on your long term success as a leader. I have served in many assignments in a number of districts and have coached people from all backgrounds, social and economic levels and can assure you of this. Earning the trust and respect of your people is the most important thing and earning it is far easier when people know from the start that you are all about them. Remember, you don’t know who will be your Innovators and Early Adopters are so you’ll have to treat them all as if they are. You’ll find that members will find you more approachable, they’ll be more willing to work with you and less likely to undermine your success. In other words, focus on your people from the start and you will SOAR!

William A. Brown 

March 10, 2019

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