Saturday, June 18, 2011

If You Really Care...

I heard a story the other day about a young woman who got a job working in an animal shelter. The job required the woman to draw blood from and give fluids to the animals. In other words, the woman had to stick those animals with needles. NEEDLES! How cruel? She couldn't do it. "The poor things," she said, "it will hurt them!" My wife and I are crazy cat-lovers. Right now, we have four and we love them like they are our children. Nevertheless, neither one of us will hesitate grab one of them by its scruff and shove a pill down its throat--regardless of how uncomfortable it may be for them. We care about them...and that's exactly why we are willing to do what's good for them.
The animal shelter is not the only place that people let their emotions get in the way of them doing their jobs. What about the therapist who gets too wrapped up in the problems of her client to help that client work through her problems? How about the police officer who lets something slide because they feel bad for the person who is breaking the law? Imagine if your dentist refused to work on your teeth unless it was a pleasant experience for you. We often hold these people who let their emotions prevent them from providing their service on a pedestal. We make them out to be heroic. "They care too much," we reason, "that is their only weakness." In reality, the reason why they can't do their jobs is that they don't care enough.

You see, if you really care, you'll get results. You have a job to do. You are a therapist. You must help you client. You are a police officer. You must uphold the law. You are a dentist. You must fix teeth. You work in an animal shelter. You must do whatever it takes to save those animals. If your concern for doing your job is real and not just a facade, you will get results. You will finish the job. You aren't heartless if you are doing your job. On the contrary, you have more heart than the person who falters under emotional strain; your heart will simply be in the right place. Your heart is set on finishing what you started. Your heart is set on results.

What does this have to do with sales? EVERYTHING! How often do we let our emotions prevent us from helping our clients? We may feel bad that our clients just don't have the budget, and we would be imposing if tried to sell them what we have to offer. We may feel bad that the client is pressed for time, and we would be adding injury to insult to ask her to meet with us. What we fail to realize when we let our emotions keep us from selling is that, if we aren't selling, we aren't helping. Let me repeat that: IF WE AREN'T SELLING, WE AREN'T HELPING. As a matter of fact, we can never help our clients by not selling them. Do we really care about our clients? Then we should want them to have what we offering, because we know it can improve their situations. We are accomplishing nothing by getting ourselves worked up and emotional about our clients. If we really care, we will sell them. If we really care, we will get results.

What about you? Do you feel bad for your clients? Good. Now, do you feel bad enough to sell them something? Do you care enough to get results?

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