Psychic

Do you ever try to be a mind reader? Ok not like this…

Often times in sales, people try to read other each other’s minds. Normally this would be a good thing for you- if you had the real ability. It is true that you can pick up nuances off of body language and that you can attempt to read between the lines of what the other person is saying, but the great danger lies in- what if you are wrong?

If you are face to face or on the phone, mind reading in sales can be a bad thing. David Mattson says flat out “No mind reading!”. Reading between the lines is important, but what happens when you misread between the lines? Then you can wind up thinking that the prospect means one thing when they really mean another. It is like a house of cards. One assumption can lead to another and before you know it, you have an entire sales deal finished in your mind when in reality the person is not interested at all.

So much energy could be conserved and directed towards other things if we only asked clarifying questions,  which would eliminate all of the mind-reading games! The applicability also extends far beyond sales. In relationships, people can also attempt to read people’s minds only to get themselves into a lot of trouble. The real fun happens when both parties are trying to read each other’s minds at the same time.

This also ties in with Sandler’s rule about “No mystification”. Clarity is the key to having a sales conversation go smoothly. To add to the confusion, we often carry with us our own bias that Mattson affectionately calls “happy ears”. My Mom has a different term which she likes to call “selective hearing.” When I am five rooms away and she mentions something about ice cream or going to the movies, I instantly come running or begin participating in the conversation. On the other hand, if it is something negative, like a chore, “whoops! didn’t hear you!”. Of course, I don’t do this anymore, but the same thing can easily happen in sales. A client says one thing and all I hear is the stuff that I want to hear. That is “happy ears”. The solution is quite simple, ask clarifying questions early and often. At the end of the day, the client is going to buy or not buy, whether or not you think they are or are not. Make sure they definitely are before you go and tell your boss you just landed that 5 million dollar deal!