Sitting in the Admiral’s Club in Raleigh the other day, I couldn’t help but overhear a conversation the person next to me was having on the telephone.
The person talking to another person on the phone was shocked to hear Mario Cuomo had died.
Excuse me, but it happened days earlier.
The person saw it on a television turned to a news channel as they were talking about his legacy. The person’s reaction was, “Wow! I didn’t know that.”
Next story up was the little girl who “walked away from plane crash, update after this break.” Immediately the person told the person on the phone they found a survivor to one of the planes that crashed in Asia.
Excuse me, but again — old news (and wrong plane crash!).
As I’m hearing her share this information, I felt like letting her know Senator Obama was elected President of the United States. (I restrained myself from such a sarcastic comment).
What does all this mean to us and how we sell?
It means a lot! Its’ just another reminder we can’t take for granted what our customers know or what they don’t know. More importantly, we have to show respect in how we communicate with them.
Could you imagine how this person would have responded if I had made the snide remark about Obama being president?
How do we measure what our customers know? Do we create a safe environment for them to share?
My fear is too many times we (and I’m including myself in the mix) insult our customers by trying to make them feel dumb based on how smart we think we are.
Slow down. Knowledge is not a uniform commodity. Knowledge does not travel at the same speed and it’s our job to help customers become informed in a way they feel safe.
Copyright 2015, Mark Hunter “The Sales Hunter.” Sales Motivation Blog. Mark Hunter is the author of High-Profit Selling: Win the Sale Without Compromising on Price.
