Sales and Surgery

In my junior year of high school, I had to get surgery on my shoulder’s rotator cuff. After the operation and 8 months of rehab, I believed I was healed. Unfortunately, a few short months after recovery, I re-tore the same shoulder. I had to have surgery again and go through all of the rehab for a second time. Each time I went into the office, the doctors never just treated me like a piece of meat. It was never like, “Alright, there’s obviously something wrong with you, get on the table and we’ll figure it out.” No! Instead, they would ask me very pointed questions, trying to figure out exactly what could be wrong before they took any action. They had a diagnostic process that gave them a frame of reference which allowed them to move forward with confidence. Salesmen are the same.

If I was trying to sell new paints to a business and walked in and just started pointing out every flaw in their building and showing the owner all of my best paints and making promises I couldn’t keep, I would be doing a very bad job selling. There must be some order in the way we sell. We must have a certain plan that will help direct us with our sale. We also must think about that sales-buzzword “Trust”. For me, the doctor knew that he had to build a certain level of trust with me before I let him cut my shoulder open and repair the damage that had been done. So too, salesmen must put the customer at ease, building up that trust before even considering moving forward to the sale.