Beat inertia by injecting some creative tension into the mix

People tend to follow patterns in their daily lives. For example, it is common for many families to sit down and watch television after children have been put to bed. Needless to say, television companies are aware of prime viewing times and are likely to use this pattern to introduce new programming—all they are doing is adding something into a pattern that already exists.

Breaking these patterns requires a jolt of some sort. Tension is created and energy is diverted to this new input. This raises the question of whether this new pattern is worth considering. In most cases, for those a company is trying to reach out to, the answer is no. Time is precious to them and a new pattern is a risk, which is something to be feared. For example, a person selling gardening services is asking a prospect to interrupt their existing pattern of doing their gardening themselves and will encounter significant resistance, as would attempting to sell a product to a purchasing manager in a large organisation because they probably will not want to change the status quo. Furthermore, it is likely that you have a favourite supermarket, but its rivals spend millions of pounds trying to convince you to break that pattern and visit them instead.