Saturday, August 15, 2009

savvy sales service trainers make


I was reading a comment made by Ernest Hemingway about novelists.If they know their subjects, their prose can be lean, leaving out certain details that the audience will imagine as vividly as if they were on the page.But if writers are themselves uninformed, when they leave out details there will be holes.Aristotle made much the same observation about public speakers, who use casual logic when making their points, counting on audiences to supply missing premises.Formal logic says:All men are mortal.Socrates is a man.Therefore, Socrates is mortal.For economy, a contemporary speaker could be expected to say:: "We all know Socrates will die, because he's only a man."The missing premise is "Al men are mortal." Aristotle gave a name to this informal syllogism: The "enthymeme."Smart teachers, and I include in this category savvy sales & service trainers, do something similar, and this endears them to their recruits, who come to feel empowered. They encourage listeners to apply their experiences and perspectives to the lessons they're learning.For example, to teach the so-called KISS Method of selling, which stands for Keep It Simple, they'll finish this acronym with either the word, "Seller" or more commonly, "Stupid." It becomes: "Keep It Simple, Seller!" or "Keep It Simple, Stupid!"Take your pick: Either way it spells KISS.But the lesson that follows the word, "Stupid" will portray salespeople as folks that simply cannot shut-up, whose loose lips don't sink ships, but deals.Trainees hear this and feel they're equally dumb, undisciplined, and impulsive. Feeling inadequate does nothing for their self-esteem, and it is no mood to be in to learn new job skills, or anything else.The savvy sales trainer appeals to intelligence, building-up the virtues of brevity, demonstrating how the shortest path to an order is usually the best, and there is no good reason to make a proposal seem more complicated, and therefore more threatening, than it is.They'll follow this precept with a question, tapping the vivid memories of those present: "When was the last time you talked your way out of an opportunity, personally or professionally?And not wanting to leave the discussion on a negative note they'll follow-up with this query: "When did you want to say something, but instead you bit your lip, and it saved the day?"By following this protocol, sales trainers make the same point as they would by calling sellers "stupid," but they don't fall into a negativity trap.Plus, they remind trainees that they've curtailed their talking before, with positive results, so they're smart enough to do so, again.Additionally, savvy sales trainers downplay their own godliness, for lack of a better term. They don't posture as being infallible, sending a signal that trainees need to be equally perfect to succeed.By coming down from a pedestal, trainers elevate the importance of their team, and this helps to make far more winners than losers.

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