What can Sales can learn from 'Drown-Proofing'?

The inspiration for this article came from this wonderful blog by Mark Manson, the author of 'Subtle Art of Not Giving a F**k'. Yes, that's a book title and for those who haven't read it, I highly recommend it. It's modern day philosophy explained in an easy manner. I have reviewed the book in detail here.

Drown Proofing, as explained in Wikipedia, "is a method for surviving in water disaster scenarios without sinking or drowning". The idea gained popularity and is used in US Navy Seals training for few decades now. While the US Navy follow quite an extreme version of the exercise, we will take the basic concept applied during the original disaster training scenario and observe what, as sales reps, we can learn from them.

Just imagine that you are in a situation where your hands and legs are bound from behind and you are dropped inside a pool, which is deep enough for you to be drowned. Your task is to stay afloat or avoid being drowned. How will you react? Will you panic? May be not (as you are reading in a relaxed environment), but what happens when your breath runs out after few sec? Can you remain calm and composed?

In the beginning of the exercise, the fear of drowning create panic. People react in a typical way how humans have reacted for centuries in similar situations. Do we Fight or Fly? In this context, people fight. They do so by trying to move their body or move their fingers or force their body to stay afloat and/or many other tricks. Does it work? Does it help them to stay afloat? Of course it does, but only for mere seconds, until your breath runs out.

The science works opposite to how humans react. The more we fight, the more we lose energy and breath, there by increasing the possibility of drowning.

The art of not sinking is counter to your desire of floating. In a way, it is counter to your human nature. The ability lie in checking your emotional thoughts that enables you not to panic but to think. It's not your swimming skills that comes into play, it's how you hold yourself at times of pressure.

"Thinking is hard and that's why humans judge" - CG Jung. Thinking is hard and that's why we react.

How is Sales connected to this?

As humans, we have the ability for verbal communication and it is in our nature to talk. As reps, it's in our nature to talk and to think that by talking we get closer to closing a deal. There is nothing wrong or right about this. Without talking, we will not be able to communicate the benefits of what we have to offer. The problem is to identify when to talk and that's counter to our nature of fight or fly.

In one experiement I conducted with New Hires, during my Induction programme, I had nominated two reps to play the role of a client and of a sales rep respectively. I handed specific instruction to the rep playing as the 'client', not to bombard with objections, but ask questions or clarify concepts they didn't understand. This enabled the sales conversation to move freely.

What the reps didn't know was that I was timing the amount of time the 'sales rep' talked during the initial 3min of interaction. It wasn't a surprise to note that the rep playing the role of 'sales rep' talked more but what was a surprise was that 73% (approx) of time was used by the rep playing the role of 'Sales' (out of 5 reps). In one case, the 'rep' spoke for 2min and 30sec, leaving no time for 'client' to raise a concern or question.

Puff!! What a waste of time for both the client and the rep.

What does the client want?

In my earlier days of selling Life Insurance I happened to see a video of a top insurance agent (I forgot the person's name) speaking to an audience about selling. He was narrating a story of how he and his wife was searching for a new bed, since their old one had worn out. To cut the long story short, of the 3 stores he visited, only 1 sales guy asked them the golden question, 'Sir, may I know what are you looking for?'.

What stops reps from asking relevant questions to client? What makes us terrified of the prospect of listening? Why do we think that if we don't talk, we won't make a deal? Successful reps often claim their success to their ability to listen more and talk less. Then why is that most of the reps do the reverse?

I guess you know the answer by now. What do we do about it? Just like participants are trained to remain calm during the Drown Proofing exercise, Sales reps need to understand the need to remain patient and listen to what client has to say. Reps need to be trained on asking relevant questions and position products/services relevant to client needs.

Participants who are trained on Drown Proofing as trained to remain calm under stress and stay away from the basic instinct to flash your arms and legs. Sales reps need to master their innate desire to talk.

What is 'listening' skill?

The moment I start speaking on the importance of 'listening' to new hire or Sr reps, I get lot of nods. A unanimous approval of how important listening is. Yet, the moment they get on the floor or meet clients face to face, they go back to their basic desire to talk and talk.

Letting clients talk and listening to them is an art that requires time, patience and effort. If you are in the sales field for 10yrs plus, you would have acquired them by now. However, in today's world, 10 yrs is not the time a rep can spare. You need to do it now, right now.

When you listen, patiently, clients reveal a lot than they would like to. It's again a human habit. People love to talk about themselves and their problems. When you lend an ear, they talk more.

Tying all the ends

It's natural for us to talk, but remember, that's what we need to battle. Just like holding the nerve to stay afloat when your legs and hand tied from behind, you need to hold your nerve and let the client speak. Ask open ended questions and take a back seat for a while. You will surprise yourself as how smooth the conversations go.

PS: I'm a computer grad with Sales & Sales Training background. I didn't major in Literature. Apologies to all grammar fanatics.