My daughter and her husband had a baby four months ago (thanks for the congrats). She now has three, all under four!!
My wife and I were asked to watch the kids through the day during her first week back to work, which we love doing and agreed to. It was during one of these days that my two year old granddaughter confirmed what we, as salespeople, too often forget.
You see, I was attempting to put two half eaten Slurpee’s in the refrigerator when one slipped. I tried to make an athletic recovery of both, along with a box of OJ under my arm. Both Slurpee’s fell (not the OJ) making the expected purple mess on the kitchen floor.
After cleaning the mess up, I took my granddaughter outside to play for a bit when she asked me what was wrong with my leg. I looked, and sure enough, there was still a bunch of dried purple Slurpee on my leg. I told her that the Slurpee’s that fell on the floor must have hit my leg on the way down. She then asked a simple question…”why?" I said they slipped out of my hand…she again asked…”why?" I told her that I was putting them in the refrigerator so she could have them later…again she asked “why?" I said, they will taste good later…again “why?" At which I felt like telling her that I was a dumb *ss and was trying to do too much at one time and paid the price. I didn’t of course, but had to laugh. Here was a little (but very bright) two year old getting me to admit that I messed up by trying to put too much stuff away at the same time. It took her five “whys.”
This reminded me of a sales training course I took from Will Nowell several years ago, where he asked me (in front of over 100 of our best and brightest salespeople) what I did for fun. I told him I played golf. He asked, “What is it about golf that makes it so much fun.” After several more “whys” from Will, we both determined that the reason I like golf is that I like to gamble on the golf course and enjoy the shenanigans that come with it.
He then went in to detail about how a salesperson selling in a golf course community will probably go off on a tangent about the golf course, tournaments, type of grass on the greens, club activities, etc. when he learns that the prospect likes golf... when all he really had to do was to dig a little deeper by asking a series of questions about what is important to that prospect about living in a golf community and tailor the conversation accordingly.
Simple, right? Who knew that a two year old would reinforce this most important function in sales.
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Mike Curtin is Managing Partner of The SaleStream, a research company dedicated to providing isolated and targeted insights and intelligence for the real estate industry.
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