The Fortune Cookie and The Mormon
Bernadette McClelland
Helping sales leaders and entrepreneurial CEOs scale impact and revenue ~ by leveraging wisdom in an AI-driven world ?? Keynote Speaker ?? Leadership Coach | Author | Harvard MBA Mentor
OK. I know it sounds like you're about to read some kind of joke, but alas, no joke! A message, instead.
Last week, here in Denver, the temperature got to minus 7 degrees and for a newbie from Melbourne, Australia, it was a tad cold - and we haven't even hit winter yet!
There was a knock at my front door and expecting it to be a long awaited Amazon delivery, I opened the door in the height of enthusiasm, to be greeted by two very good looking young guys.
Both in black coats and bags slung over their shoulders, my exuberance rapidly disappeared as their clean cut look spoke volumes.
They greeted me very politely, explaining they were looking for an 'Alice Grey'. My first instinct was to think this was a 'sales ruse' and therefore not believe them, but as I was about to let them know I wasn't interested, I decided to give them a chance and hear them out.
Not for any reason related to interest in their religious views, but out of respect for what they were doing. D2D (Door to Door) selling is a real thing - whether it is milk companies sending reps out to knock on a hundred doors a day to win two sales, or Mormons facing ridicule and rejection for god only knows how many literal conversions they are expected to achieve.
I didn't catch their names because they didn't give them to me. And they didn't know my name either because they didn't ask. I guess name swapping may not be a part of their repertoire, although they did ask for 'Alice'.
They also asked me if I had heard of the Book of Mormon.
I couldn't help myself and asked them if they had seen the Book of Morman.
They looked at each other and shook their heads.
I laughed.
They did not.
Almost immediately, the shorter one began to quote passages, verbatim, from the Bible without stopping for breath. He was clearly very nervous, yet no context or relevance had been positioned relating to those passages. I let him have his 'monologue moment' and as I did, I was reminded me of how one dimensional salespeople of all genres can become.
This fear of 'not being enough' causes conversations to default to what you know and not enable you to venture into a deeper conversations about what your buyer cares about. You end up coming from a place of incongruence and it's an awkward energy. [Spoiler alert - this is not just a sales issue].
As I bid them farewell, they asked me if I wanted a copy of the 'great book'. I politely declined, before changing my mind.
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The reason I changed my mind?
My fortune cookie from dinner the night before said,
'When one door closes, another one opens'
They were newbie salespeople, probably with KPIs based on a certain number of pitches to give and a certain number of books to be placed in people's homes.
I didn't want to be one of those prospects who dissed a seller without at least giving them the time of day and opportunity for them to shift my thinking.
Cold calling is a tough gig at the best of times, especially D2D and in minus seven degrees.
So as you go about your day, remember to find out someone else's story first, ask them to share what happened to make them think a certain way, what occurred to make them feel a certain way or what transpired to make them believe a certain way.
And don't forget to pay it forward because opportunities might be knocking at your door as well, dressed as salespeople!
Stay Bold, Brave and Brilliant,
SALES LEADERS AND EVENT ORGANISERS?(Video below)?- My programs help your clients, whether they be corporate sales teams or Association members, to shift their thinking around business connections, conversations and conversions.
Applied physics.(JOIN ME) the work presented here is entirely new
1 年I AM,...............................connected to YOU, as you are,...................TO ME This is the way of it....(as wild as that sounds) There's a physics involved, and a new mathematics to usher in a new age of understanding. Judgment it seems, is but a wonderful natural process involved in each atomic interaction, as flux is applied over some distance.... to create energy, in four new forms. Comparison, is the component of this natural world, that creates the distance, to be so applied, making each entanglement or COMMUNICATION,... UNIQUE. This is the way of it And so there is a message.... spoken in great concern, please So then it is but to simply "take in" the faces... of others... that you might connect.... to build what some call a Body of Christ You know... the love that makes the world go round.... A face is all you need... to then connect... to them.... it contains the elements of all things natural... in texture and size... or the fancy terms,.. character and reference... Your brain does all the rest... as an intrinsic part of our human condition.... it's called faith.... or observation... it's a cerebral breath.... that you would remember... the faces... then connecting and to give life to what you see
Best selling author - Helping you to transform the way you sell to grow revenue at higher margins, and drive better customer outcomes.
2 年It's good of you to listen just a little Bernadette McClelland - I think most close the door in their face. I have Mormon cousins and most of them have committed a year to this sort of mission work far from home (normally in another country). It must be one of the toughest gigs in sales - particularly if you have no sales skills (or even worse, poor conversation skills that your caller seemed to lack).
Guiding “Ready-to-Scale” Founders and CEOs to Take the Chaos Out of Sales | Create a More Sustainable Growth Strategy That Strengthens the Pipeline, Streamlines Their Process, and Increases Revenue on a Predictive Basis
2 年D2D sales is a tough gig and getting tougher.
Build successful #sales teams thru #data #coaching #training, #AI #FractionalCRO, Author, #salesleadership #WomenInSales #Speaker #Podcast #GTM #B2Bsalesscience #RKO #Channel 4x Salesforce Top Influencer
2 年You were very kind to folks who probably get horrible things said to them in addition to slammed doors. Too bad they didn’t ask for feedback- they probably had no idea how you could have helped them!
Helping CEOs CROs Sales Leaders Expand Key Customers with Productive Sales Professionals. Delivers Customer-Centric Revenue Growth | RevTech Strategist Award 2024 I Speaker-Educator-Consultant ScaleYourSales Podcast Host
2 年Great post, Bernadette; it reminded me to be more patient with people the disturb my day and ring my video camera. I have to run from my garden studio office only to find out it is another charity; however you have taught me there may be something I can learn, or not :-)