I recently had a real-life experience which reinforced the importance of not reading people’s minds when selling to them. Today I had a job interview with a company that seemed somewhat desperate to fill a position. It actually was a sales position. Due to the fact that they were desperate, I could tell that I held some degree of power in the relationship we were building.
During the interview I was asked for things that I look for in a new job. I responded that I was interested in working for a company where I would be interacting with a lot of people, not so much a desk job position. The interviewer immediately moved to reading my mind and, “Oh you would not like working for our company then. This job is not for you.”
This seemed like a mind reading attempt and I think they even thought so too, realizing that they had messed up. They went on to sort of back track and try to sell me the job anyways, despite saying that just minutes beforehand- telling me about all of the comradery with employees and how people in the office stop by to talk to one another and hang out after hours.
Instead of reading my mind they should have asked me a question. For example, “what do you mean by that?” And it would have revealed that I would possibly be okay with their job offer, since their description later in the job showed how it was still interactive with people via zoom, despite being at a desk.
BoweryJE22