If you are going into sales as a profession, you probably genuinely like people already, but at the same time you take no nonsense You read people well. The rest of us must be merely good consumers of fine sales talent, so we get the best performance and the best performers get the work.
Here is a phenomena that would devastate us, but not phase a sales professional. Let me take it to where it is most marked.
In a prison, a convict has to build something from nothing. The leaders start with nothing and build it up. For example, at lunch one convict may stand to get a refill on say coffee, and the leader with nothing so far might hold up his cup and say "can you refill mine too?" Ignoring the request would be rude, to say no unfriendly.
Now, all ex-cons know where this story is going already. In prison, no good deed goes unpunished. So the fellow fills the two cups with black coffee, goes back to the table sets his down and hands over the cup he fetched as a favor. It does not matter what happens next, in any event, all goes wrong. The cup is spilled, the coffee is too hot, too much sugar, the fellow asking for the favor is offended, and the guy that did the favor is apologetic. Starting with absolutely nothing, the aggressive convict now has the upper hand. From there he slowly builds his empire. It is a simple as that.
The empire is built on people who apologize after doing a favor. There are versions of this in all walks of life, but they seem to flourish as buyers, and sales people can spot them instantly. There are plenty of people in prison who do not get sucked in, and salespeople are like those who can keep the balance, do no favors, no reaction to either praise or criticism, genuinely get along.
(A smart prisoner has spun around and is gone before anyone can ask a favor.)
A little story: I was witness to a spilt hot coffee event in a booth once, and the salesman observed impassively, did not react. There were people closer who naturally might have assisted her, but they were all also impassive. So I held back. Someone did wordlessly hand her a couple of napkins. I asked afterwards, and the salesman said "She's 50 and still burning herself on coffee?" (To have pointed out the fact the coffee was not hot would have opened an avenue for the buyer to get into a tiff over "what is hot?")
This is all a form of emotional blackmail, and the reaction is to smile as if patiently waiting for a child to finish a temper tantrum.
I am not picking on buyers, about half the time I am a buyer. Most buyers don't run that gambit, the problem is they can ruin your day if you let them. Sometimes the best reaction is no reaction.
Feel free to forward this by email to three of your friends.
Here is a phenomena that would devastate us, but not phase a sales professional. Let me take it to where it is most marked.
In a prison, a convict has to build something from nothing. The leaders start with nothing and build it up. For example, at lunch one convict may stand to get a refill on say coffee, and the leader with nothing so far might hold up his cup and say "can you refill mine too?" Ignoring the request would be rude, to say no unfriendly.
Now, all ex-cons know where this story is going already. In prison, no good deed goes unpunished. So the fellow fills the two cups with black coffee, goes back to the table sets his down and hands over the cup he fetched as a favor. It does not matter what happens next, in any event, all goes wrong. The cup is spilled, the coffee is too hot, too much sugar, the fellow asking for the favor is offended, and the guy that did the favor is apologetic. Starting with absolutely nothing, the aggressive convict now has the upper hand. From there he slowly builds his empire. It is a simple as that.
The empire is built on people who apologize after doing a favor. There are versions of this in all walks of life, but they seem to flourish as buyers, and sales people can spot them instantly. There are plenty of people in prison who do not get sucked in, and salespeople are like those who can keep the balance, do no favors, no reaction to either praise or criticism, genuinely get along.
(A smart prisoner has spun around and is gone before anyone can ask a favor.)
A little story: I was witness to a spilt hot coffee event in a booth once, and the salesman observed impassively, did not react. There were people closer who naturally might have assisted her, but they were all also impassive. So I held back. Someone did wordlessly hand her a couple of napkins. I asked afterwards, and the salesman said "She's 50 and still burning herself on coffee?" (To have pointed out the fact the coffee was not hot would have opened an avenue for the buyer to get into a tiff over "what is hot?")
This is all a form of emotional blackmail, and the reaction is to smile as if patiently waiting for a child to finish a temper tantrum.
I am not picking on buyers, about half the time I am a buyer. Most buyers don't run that gambit, the problem is they can ruin your day if you let them. Sometimes the best reaction is no reaction.
Feel free to forward this by email to three of your friends.
1 comments:
The salesman was a practitioner of Wu Wei, which demonstrates his mastery of the field.
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wu_wei
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