Tell the truth quickly

Great leaders always share a common habit: they tell the truth faster

than other managers do.

Steve recalls his work with helping managers motivate salespeople.

But it doesn’t just apply to salespeople. It applies to all people:

I always found that people would tell me about their limitations, and I

would patiently listen and try to talk them out of their limitations, and they

would try to talk me back into what their limitations really were. That

seemed to be their obsession.

One day, I was working with a salesperson in a difficult one-on-one

coaching session, and finally I just blurted it out (I guess I was tired, or

upset, or was having a stressful day) and I said, “You know, you’re just

lying to me.”

“What?” he said.

“You’re lying. Don’t tell me there’s nothing you can do. There’s a lot

you can do. So let’s you and I work with the truth, because if we work with

the truth and we don’t lie to each other, we are going to get to your

success so much faster than if we do it this way, focusing on your self-

deceptions.”

Well, my client was just absolutely shocked. He stared at me for a

long time. It’s not always a great relationship-builder to call someone a

liar. I don’t recommend it. If I hadn’t been as tired as I was, I don’t think I

would have done it, but the remarkable thing was, my client all of a

sudden began to smile! He sat back in his chair and he said, “You know

what? You are right.”

I said, “What?”

He said, “I said, you know what, you are right, that’s not the truth at

all, is it?”

“No, it’s not.”

“You are right,” he said, “There’s a lot I can do.”

“Yes, there is.”

This is the main lie you hear in the world of business and especially in

sales: “There’s nothing I can do.” This is the “I am helpless and

powerless” lie. The truth is, there is always a lot you can do. You just

have to choose the most creative and efficient way to do it. As

Shakespeare wrote, “Action is eloquence.”

One way a salesperson I know starts her day off with action is to ask

herself, “If I were coaching me, what would I advise myself to do right

now? What creative, service-oriented beneficial action could I take that

my client would be grateful for in the end? What action would bring the

highest return to me?”

Another quick cure for the feeling that “there’s nothing I can do” is to

ask myself, “If I were my customer or my prospect, what would I want me

to do?”

Great salespeople, and any people who lead their teams in

performance and who prosper the most from their profession, are great

givers. They stay in constant touch with their power to do so much by

constantly giving their internal and external clients beneficial things—

helpful information, offers of service, respect for their time, support for

their success, cheerful friendly encounters, sincere acknowledgements, the

inside scoop—giving, giving, giving all day long, always putting the

client’s wants and needs first. They always ask the best questions and

always listen better than anyone else listens. As that commitment grows

and expands, and those gifts are lavished on each client in creative and

ongoing communications, that salesperson becomes a world-level expert

in client psychology and buying behaviour. And that salesperson also

realizes that such a dizzying level of expertise can only be acquired

through massive benefit-based interaction!

A new week begins, and this thought occurs: “There’s so much good I

can do, I just can’t wait.”