HE SAID SHE SAID THAT I SAID

When you were a child did you ever play the game “TELEPHONE”? Unfortunately I have been playing it as an adult in business. I’m sure you all know the game, it is where one person whispers something into their neighbor’s ear and then that person whispers what they thought they heard into the next person’s ear and so on until the phrase has made it around the room. The last person says what he or she heard and the person who started it then tells what they said. VERY rarely are the two remotely the same.

I was helping a rep a few weeks ago and I told her what to say in some different situations. I told her to write down what I was saying so she wouldn’t forget. Well she didn’t write down what I said and she DID forget.

She was working with her manager yesterday and said a few things that let’s just say shocked the manager. When he asked her where she picked that &#*! up from she was very willing to say, “Lorin told me to say it”.

It took the manager about 12 seconds to call me. He knows me pretty well and knew that there had to be more to the story, but he still wanted to get to the bottom of it. We talked for a few minutes and he told me who he was working with and then asked me about the stuff she was saying.

I listened and I wanted to laugh but I could tell he wasn’t in a laughing mood, so I laughed anyway. He got a little upset and asked me what I thought was so funny, I asked him to put me on speakerphone with the rep.

She said hi and started to apologize immediately for bring me into this. I simply asked her to show the manager her notes from what I told her to say. (I knew she didn’t have any) She said you know I didn’t take notes and I said yep I knew, and now she knew why I wanted her to take the notes.

I asked her what she said and she told me and her manager agreed it was very close, I then repeated what I had told her to say. There was silence on the phone. I asked her if that sounded familiar to her, she said yes. I then asked her if she understood the difference between what I told her to say and what she actually said, once again she said yes.

The manager and I got back on the phone and he told me he knew something had to be wrong, I just said well I am glad you called me rather than just thinking I would have taught her something like that.

I always ask the reps I work with to write down what I say. I try and teach them that in some cases the smallest change in what you say and in some cases just how you say it can change the meaning entirely. My advice to you, as you go through your day and you find a phrase that gets you the results you want write it down. If you ask the customer a question and it gets you the answer you want, write it down. Make detailed notes so when you read them later you will be able to duplicate what you said and HOW you said it.

Here is a little exercise for you to try. Say the next sentence putting the accent on a different word each time.

“I DIDN’T SAY HE STOLE THE WALLET”

I will help you with the first one. Put the accent on “I”. The sentence now means I didn’t say it but someone else did.

Now do it yourself with the accent on the word “SAY” and listen to how the meaning of the sentence changes. Same words just said differently.

I guess that if he said she said that I said it, then maybe he should have asked what it was he said she said that I said.

Lorin