Weekly TimBit– Do you know how much business you are losing every day?
I will guarantee that whoever you are reading this article – that right now you have a personal or business challenge that you wish were over or solved. Am I right? If not you may have a serious issue with denial.
I have been selling my entire life; insurance, advertising, machine tools and training and I have to tell you that I can't count the number of times I tried to share ideas with prospects who simply said before I even had a chance to tell them how I could help them, "I'm not interested." Guilty? Or are you in sales and hear that a lot as well? No individual or business lacks their share of challenges or problems that others may have effective and timely solutions for but how will you know unless you are willing to listen – you won't.
Right now, whatever your current challenge – there is a viable solution out there waiting for you to embrace it but first you have to be willing to be open to possible solutions, ideas or creative approaches. The problem that I have encountered for over 40 years is that people want their problems solved but are willing to consider options. Again, are you one of these people? If you are, you have no idea how much time, money, resources or potential customers you are losing right now due to your ego, arrogance or yes, ignorance. You would rather stay stuck in your trouble , adversity or comfort zone than be open to considering some potentially valuable solutions or even options.
Over the years I have generally put most people in one of three categories when it comes to solving problems and being receptive to suggestions or possible solutions. Please keep in mind these are my words and you won't find them in your dictionary;
The denier- For every problem we face there are any number of potential solutions but to discover them you have to be willing to first be aware of the problem and its source(s) and then accept that you need or would benefit from help or guidance or even an objective viewpoint. When you are in denial you only see things from your own perspective and that's like looking at the world with blinders or very dark sunglasses on – you don't see reality, you are not aware of possibilities and you are unwilling to take off the glasses or blinders. I can tell you from years of personal experience that very few people see reality, yes they see their own reality but that can be a million miles away from what is really true or happening.
I made a call on a prospect today and before I could even get a dozen words out of my mouth, they said they were not interested. So I responded with, what is it that you are not interested in? Their response, it doesn't matter we are not interested in anything right now. Rather than ask them why I simply said, business must be really booming right now. You guessed it – the response, well, not so great. HELLO – could it be possible that I had a plausible solution that would change things for them for the better. Maybe yes or maybe no but they will never know and do you think they want their business to improve?
Come on, who doesn't in some way. If you are selling solutions to business's challenges I will guarantee you run into this every day. Frustrating isn't it dealing with Deniers?
The egomanic- I love these folks. They have an excuse or answer for everything and when I say answer I mean excuse. These people still think the world is flat no matter how much evidence you show them. Nothing that goes against their personal viewpoint will ever be accepted. You can give them a long list of proven – whaevers – and they will refuse to budge. They will go down in flames before they will be willing to change or see the light.
Last week I had a sales conversation with one of these folks – amazing. No matter what I said they disagreed with me. So I ended the conversation with a simple question – how is this style of yours working in the current economic climate, well it was no surprise, they hung up on me. All I can say is – good luck with your very narrow opinions and mindsets as the future unfolds at a dynamic and rapid pace.
The resolver- These people want solutions and know that things could always be better in some way. They listen to salespeople, employees, customer's even strangers who have opinions, ideas or suggestions. They are always open and receptive to a better or more effective or economical way to solve their problems and grow their business. If you have these people as customers, consider yourself fortunate cause there are not a lot of them out there today given the current state of affairs.
I had a conversation with one of these people last week and it was amazing. They didn't buy but thanked me for giving them the opportunity to buy. Ever heard that before? I doubt it and if you have it's not because of what you are selling or its price or any other factor, it's because of who they are.
Do you know which one of the three you are?
If it's one of the first two are you willing to change?
If no, why not? I'll tell you why not – you are stuck. Want to change anything? You have to get unstuck.
Business not going so well? You are stuck.
Need solutions to the same types of problems that recur again and again? You are stuck.
Not happy with outcomes or the consequences of decisions? You are stuck?
Not sure what to do next? You are stuck.
Get it – get unstuck.
Make it a great week and a tremendous year, In His service, Tim