Child’s play…

Salespeople can learn a lot from children; from Yogi Berra, too:

You can see a lot by observing.

There are two particular words in a child’s vocabulary that are worth observing.  Simple words; straight-forward words; short words.  A three letter word and a two letter word.

The first?

Salespeople should take lessons from their kids.  What does the word 'no' mean to a kid?  Almost nothing.

Mike Weinberg

Sales is a profession of hearing “no”; a lot; yes?  In our profession, no doesn’t always mean no.  More times than not it means not now; or not that one; or not at that price.  Our clients and prospects guide us to their yes by first saying no.

A child combines this “almost nothing” attitude with a 3-letter word.  Salespeople can, as well.  Call me child-like, but this word comes naturally for me. I don’t use it to set me apart from my competitors.  It’s not contrived.  That wasn’t my objective.  I had a hard enough time paying attention to what I was doing to worry about what my competitors were up to.

No, I used this 3-letter word throughout my career genuinely; appropriately; and with all sincerity.  When my clients and prospects could tell how hard I was trying to understand they would say, “Gary, let me help you” and then they’d reveal their yes. This phenomena is known in the business as:

Getting on the same side of the desk with our prospect.

Isn’t it amazing that a simple, every day, childlike, 3-letter word has the power to get us on the inside with our clients and prospects?  One word that guides us directly and more comfortably to their yes vs. overcoming the obstacles of their no.

 Steven Covey put it this way:

     Seek first to understand…

This 3-letter word is even easy to work into a sales conversation.  Every time a client or prospect states “What” they want, we should remember our childhood and ask, “Why?”

We tell our children and grandchildren “no” frequently, true?  And their most common response?  Yep – you guessed it – “Why?”  Using that simple word advances those kids past our “no” to obtaining our yes, yes?  See what I mean?

                                                            GAP

When life gets tough we could get a helmet… or… we could leverage the peace and share the power of a positive perspective.