We meet so many companies that are scared.

Scared because they old ways just are not working anymore.  Today I met with a sales leader, he spends £250,000 ($325,000) every year on marketing.

With some clever targeting he things he was able to cut £70,000 ($91,000) from that budget, but still couldn't see a return from that budget.

It's a classic "what got you here, won't get you there" situation.

Many leaders still use interruption methods of marketing, for example, cold calling, email lists and advertising, people can see the evidence that the response of those methods are reducing every day.

Why are they scared?

Because they don't know what to other than cold calling, emails and advertising.

We all have to recognize that nobody likes being sold to.  But get back to our desks and immediately want to sell to people.  Any type of interruption marketing, which is then followed by a pitch just annoys people.  Especially when people know that they can avoid sales people online when they buy.

So what of our leaders?

Leaders, in fact everybody in business have to understand social media, how it works, how it can generate you business and how it will create you a competitive advantage.

All my life I've realised that we need to understand new tech or we get left behind.  We have an Amazon Echo at home because i want to understand the pros and cons.  I've forced myself to use Uber, so I can understand what's about.  This growth mindset of continual learning is critical, I believe, or you will get left behind.