How do Wisdom and Selling go together?

Welcome to Wisdom Selling. So if you are like me, you are always wanting to learn more. Well here is the deal about selling. It is the desire to exchange something you have, for something of more value to you. You may have an idea, a product, a service which people will want to pay for, allowing you to make a profit. You have to seek out people who might want it, and convince them it is worth the price you are charging. Or like me, you may just have a little wisdom, and are looking for someone who values it enough to want to use it. My value received in return is the joy of your feedback. So, I am selling wisdom. The cost to you, your interest. I want to help others as well. Visit the links page and shop for some good deals. Any profits on money you spend there will be used by Wisdom Selling to support non-profit businesses in developing their strategies.

Friday, October 22, 2010

Match ups in sales - Looking at each of the possible combinations of 70 : 30

So alot of my experiences with people have come in the sales arena, which I have been participating in for the last 28 years.  Granted for most of that I was a scared chicken, sort of the "you don't want to buy anything from me today, do you?" mentality.  I did not have enough self confidence to think others would want to interact much less be convinced by my presentations.  Nonetheless, I trudged on, and managed to create quite a mask in the sales role.  This mask did nothing but make it hard for me, because then I had to add behaviors that matched the confidence and aggressiveness portrayed.  These were not healthy behaviors, and my character definitely took a hit.
I had to go back to the basics of character development and get my personal act together prior to having a real change in my sales ability.  During that time I was exposed to a cool sales methodology from Wilson Learning, the Counselor Sales Approach.  It helped me deal with the idea of building trust, positioning to real needs, and supporting my offering.  In many ways, it also gave me some guidance in how to do counseling in general.  I began to flourish a little in the confidence this approach brought, and in my new positions, found myself directing the sales efforts of the organization as a whole.
Once I began to look at this approach and the need to transfer it to others, I began to see just how different the response was from different people.  People who have excellent rapport with their market already, might look at it as no real advantage, while those who were new or less comfortable with people may find it to have some real benefit.  Not only that, but I also realize that the method is not 100% foolproof in dealing with all different kinds of people, so I began to challenge it from the 70:30 rule.
Sure enough, there is more complexity to relationships than just counseling can deal with so I want to run the sales process through the funnel of different combinations and see what happens.  The next few blog posts will address the options we have in our dealings in sales.  Whatever is discussed there will have application is lots of different life roles, not just selling.  That is just the current theme.
Kudos to Wilson Learning for their approach.  In discussing these areas, there will certainly be some overlap with their program, for which I give them full credit.

Sunday, October 17, 2010

I just wanted to smack someone yesterday!

SO... when we take on this position of being a 70% solution provider, we are intent on building and relating with others.  Our expectation is that we will have their strength to be there for everyone and it will all end happily and we will feel fulfilled! 
The first problem with this thinking is internal.  The Bible says that out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks.  If I cannot put into my heart quality thoughts and ideas and feelings, and have a support process to maintain these, then the quality of my heart contents will decline over time.  At that point, we are ask risk from stressful situations.  Yikes.  I have problems with this.  My inputs are not frequent enough, because I don't spend enough time focusing on the good things of life.  I also don't spend enough time in the Bible to keep adding the wisdom needed for hard decisions.  Seeing this is a good start to a solution, and one of the reasons I blog is to reveal to myself the positives in life.   I hope it helps you as well.
The second reason is external.  You and I both know there are selfish, aggravating people out there as well as situations that would not happen if people weren't so slack.
This is the day I had.  First, we drop our youngest off at school each morning.  To enter the parking lot and drop off, cars have to alternate.  Of course, there is one woman on a phone, who instead of stopping to let a car in front of her, followed right behind the one in front of her.  Good Grief!  Doesn't she realize that if everyone did this we would have mass chaos?
Second I pull into McDonalds and even though there are two drive thrus for you to drive around the building and get in line for, the person in front of me just pulls up and stops with the front of there car between two in line, expecting to be let in.  This also blocked the rest of us from getting into the parking lot.  Good Grief!  I had to go the wrong way on the parking lot to turn around and get in line.  Then I had to let her in since everyone else was so selfish and wouldn't!
Went to work and dealt with slow lunch service, a very difficult and challenging day at work.  So I had a great plan to overcome this.  Our friends got us tickets to a Chris Tomlin concert.  A very good time for worship.  So they have their normal announcements about no flash or video, then the concert begins.  I discover during the opening act that a solar eclipse was sitting in front of me.  This man mountain would stand to worship with the music even when everyone else sat down.  If I sat down, it blocked out the entire stage.  BUT.., at the time, he was worshipping so no big deal, right?  Down four rows on  the left, there was this short, bald guy.  HE decided that even though there was a rule about videoing, he was going to hold up his smartphone over his head (which is why is said he was short) and the screen was right in my field of view during most of the songs.  Good Grief!  I guess you could say I was struggling to get into the music.  Then the man in front of me decides this is such a good concert he needs to take a couple of hundred pictures with his flipphone and email them to all his friends, then show his wife each and every response.  So much for the worshipful experience.
I was so aggravated by circumstances, that I missed a gift from God.  This gift was so needed due to hard decisions I had to be part of and people who I cared about.  The enemy won that battle.  I have to be more conscious of what is going on and prepare my heart better.  If I am yelling at the car in front of me for going too slow, where did that come from?  

Thursday, October 14, 2010

I hate being sick!

You know, we all have to deal with feeling bad once in a while.  My challenge this time is a sinus infection, combined with the flulike symptoms of this year's flu shot.  I don't recommend getting the shot when your immune system is under attack.  Double whammy!

Funny thing about being sick, when you are a 70percenter, especially one who is trying to use it daily in your interactions.  We are allowed to be sick and feel bad, but we are not supposed to let the illness affect our relating to people!  Hey, I am human - I suspect you are also.  If we aren't careful we will let go of our feelings and we will become a negative, moving us backward instead of forward. 
You know what is wrong with this?  Being a 70percenter is not about controlling our emotions and conversations, it is about being sincerely interested in people.  Controlling our emotions and conversations means that we are at risk of falling out of control, which puts us in a position of being seen as fake or misrepresenting our interests in this person.
Our only hope is to be sincere.  Hey, would the Great Pumpkin come to your pumpkin patch?  If you are trying to be a 70%percenter, a relater/explainer role model for the wrong reasons, everyone will eventually know.  A sincere person can be down.  A sincere person can be annoyed with someone else.  A sincere person can be forgiven.  People see through us quickly.
Hey - Care about people.  You will never lose, although you might get hurt once in a while.  Believe me it is worth it.  Then you can feel miserable like me, not want to be around anyone, and not have to spend the next week apologizing.  At least I hope so.  If not, I am sorry!  Ha

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Perspective - how it is our friend and enemy in relationships

So I taught college Sunday school this week.  The topic was moral relativism.  I passed out different kinds of nails to each group of two or three and asked them not to show each other.  I told them, this is your truth. 
After that, I went to the whiteboard and asked each of them to help me draw the nail.  The discussion was interesting as each had different size heads, lengths, scoring, etc.  Finally, one of the exasperated students said, depending on our truth, the nail will look very different.  AH HA!  She got it!  So the first part of the message was that if everyone has a different truth, there is no one real truth, as everyone has their own, and they can be entirely different.
Then I took one nail, and had three different people draw it on the board.  Each time I told them it was wrong, since they drew a side view.  I then showed them the right way to draw it was looking straight at the nail point, basically two concentric circles and a dot for the point.  What I was trying to get across is that even when we have the same truth, it is viewed from our own perspective, which is based on lots of factors from our childhood and adult experiences and learning.
So, when we are explaining to others about stuff, whether they are knowledgeable or not, they are going to have a perspective.  If it is business, they will have paradigms from their past, if it is scripture, it will be affected by past learnings as well as their opinions in general. 
Perspective can hurt our attempts to explain as we find out they are seeing a completely different truth, or if they view truth from a much different point of view than we do.  That is why relating is so important as a partner to explaining.  Relating helps us discover the perspective of others.  This knowledge can impart wisdom as to whether you are even on the same page as the other person, much less the same sentence.
Relating can prevent serious interpersonal barriers from forming as others get defensive as to their position.  Relating can show us when explaining is not a good idea at the time.

It all works together!

Friday, October 8, 2010

The lesson of the 72

1 The Lord now chose seventy-two[a] other disciples and sent them ahead in pairs to all the towns and places he planned to visit. 2 These were his instructions to them: “The harvest is great, but the workers are few. So pray to the Lord who is in charge of the harvest; ask him to send more workers into his fields. 3 Now go, and remember that I am sending you out as lambs among wolves. 4 Don’t take any money with you, nor a traveler’s bag, nor an extra pair of sandals. And don’t stop to greet anyone on the road.



5 “Whenever you enter someone’s home, first say, ‘May God’s peace be on this house.’ 6 If those who live there are peaceful, the blessing will stand; if they are not, the blessing will return to you. 7 Don’t move around from home to home. Stay in one place, eating and drinking what they provide. Don’t hesitate to accept hospitality, because those who work deserve their pay.


8 “If you enter a town and it welcomes you, eat whatever is set before you. 9 Heal the sick, and tell them, ‘The Kingdom of God is near you now.’ 10 But if a town refuses to welcome you, go out into its streets and say, 11 ‘We wipe even the dust of your town from our feet to show that we have abandoned you to your fate. And know this—the Kingdom of God is near!’ 12 I assure you, even wicked Sodom will be better off than such a town on judgment day.


13 “What sorrow awaits you, Korazin and Bethsaida! For if the miracles I did in you had been done in wicked Tyre and Sidon, their people would have repented of their sins long ago, clothing themselves in burlap and throwing ashes on their heads to show their remorse. 14 Yes, Tyre and Sidon will be better off on judgment day than you. 15 And you people of Capernaum, will you be honored in heaven? No, you will go down to the place of the dead.[b]”


16 Then he said to the disciples, “Anyone who accepts your message is also accepting me. And anyone who rejects you is rejecting me. And anyone who rejects me is rejecting God, who sent me.”


17 When the seventy-two disciples returned, they joyfully reported to him, “Lord, even the demons obey us when we use your name!”

18 “Yes,” he told them, “I saw Satan fall from heaven like lightning! 19 Look, I have given you authority over all the power of the enemy, and you can walk among snakes and scorpions and crush them. Nothing will injure you. 20 But don’t rejoice because evil spirits obey you; rejoice because your names are registered in heaven.”

Pay attention to what Christ said to the disciples he sent out.  He told them basically that there were going to be those who accepted them and those who did not.  Perhaps a reference to the 70%?  In any case, you see that He told them not to lose hope due to the ones who rejected him.  He also told them to focus on those that accepted them, and to build relationships with them and explain how the Kingdom is at hand. 
For the ones who did not accept them it was going to be brief.  He told them not to waste time on them, but to quickly move on. 
 
I think sometimes we get caught up in the long term stress of trying to change the thoughts of those who reject us, and it becomes a stumbling block to us, as we keep a won/lost record.  We wont give up.  Jesus told these guys to give up fast and move on.  He would deal with the consequences.  We have to let go sometimes, so that we do not miss the opportunities that await us among the willing.
 
Does this mean we give up on witnessing to those who mean a lot to us?  Of course not, but we cannot let the challenges there discourage us with those out there we can influence.  We stay the course because we love them, not because we feel like a failure if we don't persuade them.  Sounds easy doesn't it, but when we fail with those we love, it can be devastating, can't it? 
 
Feel bad if you must, but don't quit!  The seventy-two experienced such a joy in their successes, that they came back worshiping and praising God!  HANG IN THERE! Thoughts?

You guys are killing me!

So you know this is a blog right?  Sometimes I have something interesting to say, but not often.  A lot of what is going on this blog is supposed to spur you to have some sort of reaction.  I am not here to entertain you I am here to provoke, to encourage, to challenge.  Basically to annoy you the same way this idea annoys me. 
In most if not all cases, you guys have much more clever observations on this subject of relating and explaining to different groups of people.
I need you to participate to make this worth all of you being part of the audience.  Teach me back!

Sunday, October 3, 2010

AAAAHHHHHH! Too many nice people around!

So I am at a sports conference in Chicago.  All around me are representatives from professional sports teams, and various non-profits from around the world who are looking for funding sponsors, spokespersons to talk about them in the press, and overall just some good ideas on how to use sports to impact the culture.

For the most part, the people who came together have similar presence - very nice, very talkative and interesting.  So they all find ways to meet, and to share ideas and to get to know each other better.  Remember, I am most likely to be an introvert, but try to stretch myself to talk to those who might be willing to communicate with me.  But there were too many.  I found myself closing off, seeing that they could take care of each other without me.  Wow it was so easy to back off and just watch. 

I don't know if I had anything valuable to add, but I certainly had very little motivation to try.  The self motivation needed just sank away with the people all around me getting along so well.

So I guess the short thought on this is what do I do in this situation?  I don't feel like talking, and everyone is engaged, but there are needs that my organization has that can be met by these people.  DO you think the solution is to break into the conversation groups already forming, or what?