My daughter, Kara, had an ACL injury this year and is now in recovery phase. She’s come back fine, but the doctor has noticed a spine alignment problem. Partly due to favoring her leg–and partly due to poor posture.
His words: “You might not have any pain right now, but if you do nothing, someday, your spine will degenerate and when you feel the pain then, it’ll be too late.”
As i thought about that statement, I thought of how that relates to you and I in our pursuit of business growth.
The Doctor Has X-Rays. We Have Only Instinct.
It’s easy when you hav an X-ray to show the patient’s spine. But when we work with sales teams, we have no such luxury. So, when we ask a sales team to reveal their pain to us, they’ve become so accustomed to doing things the old way, they don’t feel it. There are symptoms, but no pain. And until there’s a little “pain” there won’t be much change.
But they will feel it someday.
So, in my quest to help you and our clients, I’ve devised a list of 5 questions that you can ask yourself to “bring awareness” to any problems you have which don’t have symptoms—-yet.
By asking these questions, it might cause you to notice more clues.
- Do you ever feel that something isn’t right in your sales process–but you quickly chalk it up to lying customers or ‘the way it’s always been’?
- Do you ask yourself why the prospect is always trying to discount you?
- Do you look at your numbers–and for a fleeting moment–wonder why they aren’t better?
- Do you get that little anxiety in your gut when you have to prospect?
- Are you self conscious when you meet with a new prospect–and you feel your behavior becoming over-determined (talk too loud, too much, make false claims, don’t think before you speak)?
These questions, if answered with rigorous honesty, might give you clues into some of the symptoms of your thinking — that haven’t made it to “pain” yet.
And while you may think some of these questions are ridiculous (”Of course, Bill, I feel that way. Doesn’t everyone?”) they aren’t normal. What we’ve come to accept as normal is really a result of thinking small.
So, like Kara’s doctor says, fix the root cause of the problems now. Because once there is pain, it might be too late.
{ 0 comments… add one now }