I grew up in a lower middle class, blue collar neighborhood. My group of friends were the trouble-makers in our elementary school. Whenever something went wrong without a definite perpetrator, we were all called into the Principal’s office. We were made to wait in a group, then one by one we were called in and soaked for the truth until somebody cracked.
One morning we were again sitting in the office, each of us waiting for our turn. As it happened, I was called first. Instead of coming straight out and asking me what I knew, Mr. Michaels, our Principal, said, “Where is God in all this? Where is God?” I sat there, not sure in my 10-year old mind how to respond, so I said nothing. He asked the question again, “where is God?” When my silence continued, he told me to go back out in the hall and think about it.
Back out in the hall the other boys were keen to know what he asked and what had happened. I shrugged and said, “Apparently, God is missing and they think we had something to do with it!”
Obviously, that was a joke to set up my point. Personal perspective can cause us to see and hear things only from our own myopic viewpoint. So much so that we can’t see or hear the overall truth.
What do good salespeople need to do when a client can’t see beyond the fence of their own negative circumstances? What should we do when our customers have become so inured to, so accustomed to their hardship, difficulty, or pain, they can’t appreciate the positive solution we offer, even though it will absolutely transform their life?
While there’s no magic bullet, there are some approaches we can take to help them see their way through.
There’s the set-up. Log in to my next installment as we start looking into the ways we can open our customer’s minds to the truth we’re offering.
