How well developed is your sixth sense? You know the one I am talking about, the ability to tell when someone is telling you a lie. I remember my Mom having the best developed sixth sense I have ever seen (but she also had eyes in the back of her head) anyway, we all have this talent that works so well with customers, friends and family so the question is why do we turn it off when we talk to ourselves?
We wake up and tell ourselves, “It’s too cold”, “It’s too hot”, “It’s too wet”, and some of you in the SW may tell yourself “It’s too dry”. I have been driving and saw a business and told myself “they don’t need anything”! How about, “They look too busy” or “They don’t look busy enough”. Too big, too small, on the wrong side of the street, No place to park. I once had a phone sales rep, now remember he was in an office, at a desk and told me, “This didn’t look like a phone number I wanted to call”. With all these examples, I am sure I hit on a few lies you have told yourself. The difference, these lies dictated how we acted. Our business success was affected by these lies.
A customer can pour their heart out to you telling you about the kids starving, they are about to lose their house, they have nothing to pay their employees with and you walk away saying to yourself, “what a bunch of bologna (Oscar Mayer Spelling). The customer can have tears in their eyes and the repo man might be hauling their car away while you watch, but you still don’t believe them. And you get in your car and pass the next business because you tell yourself, “Buildings with a brown roof never buy”.
The reason we believe ourselves is because the lies we tell ourselves are driven by how we feel that very moment. I have been with reps in the field that have spent the entire morning cold calling. We stopped at every business; nothing stopped us from going inside and getting to the decision maker. Then we stopped for lunch and after eating we got back into the car and for the next 45 minutes we drove around. When I asked the reps why we were driving so much she told me none of the businesses we passed “LOOKED GOOD” to her. I did my best to probe and find out what made one business look good and another one look bad. I am still waiting for an answer I can understand. All she said was, “I will know it when I see it”. When we finally stopped to make a call, I looked and I looked at the outside of the building and didn’t see anything that made me believe it was a “GOOD” place to stop.
If anyone reading this can tell me how to spot a good business to call on and a bad one, please either leave a comment or e mail me, I will pass it on to everyone here.
Now let’s get back to reality. There is only one way I know of to tell if a business needs your product or service. Get the heck out of your car, or pick up your phone if you’re in phone sales and start the sale!
We tell ourselves that it isn’t doing any harm, we convince ourselves that it is what’s BEST for us, we believe ourselves and never stop to question if what we are telling ourselves is true, is best, or if it just another excuse we use to keep from doing the things we don’t like to do.
We all need to do ourselves a favor. Let’s at least filter our lies through the same filters we use for our customers.
Lorin
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