ISN'T ALL ENOUGH

I have said it, you have said it and I will bet just about everyone else in the world has said it at one time or another. Had we thought about how silly it is we would never say it. If we thought how silly it sounds, we would never say it. If we thought how impossible it is we would never say it. Yet we will all say it again and again, and again.

What is it I’m talking about that is so silly? The saying, “I’LL GIVE IT 110%” OR “I GAVE IT 110%”.

Really? 110%? Is that possible? I’m not a physicist but I know that 100% is all we have to give. 100% of anything is the entire thing. How can we give 100%? I know what the saying means, you will go the extra mile and do more than usual but after you do all the extra things isn’t that now your 100%.

That is my whole point, if we say to our boss or our customers we will give them 110% aren’t we really telling them that we could have been doing more up until now? We didn’t give it our all, we were slackers.

As a manager I had employees that said this to me and I never questioned it. I have said it in the past and never thought much about it. I have heard it said by reps I have been working with and didn’t give it a second thought, until today.

Today I had a sales rep in a retail clothing store tell me I will be 110% satisfied with the suit. Being the wise guy I am and being able to think a lot faster than this sales rep, I said, “Does that mean if I don’t like it you will give me my money back PLUS 10%?” After a few seconds of silence he laughed and told me I knew what he meant. As he continued to laugh I looked him right in the eye with as serious a look on my face as could muster up and said, “NO I don’t, what does it mean?”

I thought I was going to need a defibrillator for this guy, he turned red in the face and said, “Really? You don’t understand what that means?” I couldn’t keep the smile off my face any longer and started to laugh at his reaction. He gave a big sigh and the redness brightened a little in his cheeks.

I understand, but now that I have had time to think about it why would I say a statement like that? Why would you want to make a statement like that to your customers? Wouldn’t it sound better if you said I will do everything I can for you, or I will work harder for you than I have ever worked for a customer before? Both of these statements could be true, and they could both be promises that can be kept.

I know that this is a small point to make in a blog about sales training, but as I have said before, it isn’t usually the big things that eat our lunch, the devil is always in the details!

Lorin