Are You Trying to Read Minds?
You’re in a conversation with a customer or customer-to-be. What are you doing? Are you …
- Planning your response?
- Composing your next topic?
- Strategizing your sales pitch?
- Listening?
Now, you know what you should be doing if you really want to serve this person – you should be listening, right? But that’s not what I want to talk about here today.
As I was facilitating a mastermind group recently, it became apparent that there were a lot of members who regularly attempted mind-reading skills in their sales calls. These mind-reading skills are not what you think. No, it is mostly the talk inside their heads about what they believe the other person is thinking and going to say.
Usually those thoughts are not the proactive strategy of knowing the objections and overcoming them. No, more often than not they are thoughts like:
- He’s going to say no
- She doesn’t like me
- He’s going to tell me he’s going to buy from someone else
You get it – all negatives that bombard and sabotage your success. The truth is that even if the prospect is grumpy and brusque, YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT’S GOING ON WITH THEM OR WHAT’S IN THEIR HEAD.
She might have had a bad morning getting the kids off to school. He might have had an argument with his spouse. You just never know. Maybe he was running late and forgot he needed gas so when he had to stop for fuel, it made him late for an appointment. Unless you are a psychic, YOU CAN’T READ ANYONE’S MIND. You can’t watch the movie of how their day is going, either.
What you can do is this:
ASK …. LISTEN and then respond.
Don’t make any assumptions. Just talk to them. Ask probing questions about them, their situation, what’s going on – how you can help them find bigger and better solutions for their business. When they know you are interested in helping them grow and find success, you will come to mind when they need a solution you can provide – and keep coming back because they know you care and they can rely on you.
Here at Grow Your Business Coaching, we love quotes and sayings. They help to clarify things and serve as good reminders. So here’s one for this situation. Remember the old saying, “When in doubt, check it out”? There’s another one, too…. “Ask, and you shall receive.”
Take whichever old saying helps you to remember not to make assumptions and start attempting mind-reading strategies, write it on a paper and put it somewhere that you will see it – often. You will stay more positive, confident and in touch with your clients.
To your success!
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