Selling with Belief

Why do you sell the products that you do? When you meet a prospective client, how do you see them?

Do you look at them and think, “Gee, I think he might need what I am selling. I hope he does.” When they raise and objection, do you think, “Oh well, guess I’ll try someone else.”

Or do you feel, “I’m happy I met this person. He needs me, he just doesn’t know it yet.”. When they raise an objection, do you feel, “Great! Another opportunity to prove how much he needs me!”

Most are of the former type. Very few are of the latter. Who do you think is more successful? Better yet, who do you want to be?

How good ideas become…not good ideas

Good ideas become not good ideas through two mechanisms in any organization:

Mediocrity by Committee: You come up with a great idea called the light bulb. Before you can put your idea out there, it needs to be reviewed to reduce any risks. Legal looks at your light bulb and says, “Is this glass?”.  ”Yep. Lets the light get out”. “But glass is dangerous if it breaks.”  ”Well, under common use, the chance of it being broken is low.” “But glass is breakable, correct?” “Sure, but..” “OK. We will let you put this out there. Just remove the glass.” “It doesn’t work without the glass!” “Not our issue. Obviously you didn’t design it well.”

Complexity by Piecemeal: Reset. Light bulb again. This time, someone says, “Oh, you know what would make that better? A dab of blue paint.” “What for?” “People like blue” “OK, I guess.”. Next person comes along and says, “Oh, if you are putting that out there, we should get this big glop of clay on there” “Why?” “Well, it needs to get out there too, so while people are looking at it, they’ll see this, too.” Next person adds a sticker. Next adds some wadded-up gum.Sooner or later, so much stuff has been added that the light can no longer be seen.

Sour Grapes

We all know the fable from Aesop. Crow has grapes. Fox wants grapes. Crow won’t give them over, no matter how fox uses his guile to get them. Fox declares the grapes are sour and leaves (probably muttering things under his breath).

I remember this as a cautionary tale from the crow’s perspective – that people tend to diminish the value of something you have that they can’t (this interpretation has been supported by every elementary school teacher I had).

I’ve realised this is too simple. We need to see it from the perspective of the fox, and become better by doing so.

The fox felt he wanted the grapes, and that entitled him to them. When he didn’t get them, he diminished their value in his mind, and tried to do so in the mind of the crow as well. He settled on cynicism. What if he thought of it in a different way?

What if the fox asked the crow how he might find grapes like those that he could reach? What if he tried to figure out some type of trade with the crow for something the bird would value? what if he simply accepted that the grapes were not his to have, and he focussed his attention and energy pursuing something that he was more likely the obtain?

As an advisor, what do you do when a sale does not happen, or a very valuable prospect does not want to do business with you? Do you essentially call ‘sour grapes’?

The Trap of -est

You can spend way too much of your time looking for ‘-est’. Whether it is the cheapest option, the one that will get you there fastest, managed by the smartest, which allows you to offer the best option.

Problem is, nothing remains the -est long enough to matter in relation to the goals of a lifetime.

Better to focus on doing the right thing for the client, and help them live with -er (cheaper, faster, smarter, better).

Even better to offer enough to do what they need (cheap enough, fast enough, smart enough).

Allocate then optimize

When planning out just about anything (creating a financial plan, managing your time, mapping out a project), you should first allocate and then optimize.

Allocation is about, “What do I do”. It is defining the steps required to go from where you are today and get you to where you want to be. Each step must be essential – if you can remove it or combine it with another step, do so. If not, don’t.

Optimization is about, “How do I do it”. It is looking at each step you defined when you allocated, and then figuring out ways to complete each step the best way possible (which can be defined different ways – sometimes by efficiency, sometimes by impact).

I’ve found people get messed up when they try optimizing before allocating, or start optimizing while they are still allocating. For example, financial planning is an allocation process – “What do I do to do what I want to in the future, and protect myself along the way?” It is a process of fact-finding, dreaming and discussion. If you start talking about specific products before you complete this process, you’ve started optimizing too early – you make decisions around the product rather than around the client. Same thing happens when you start talking about a specific fund before figuring out what overall portfolio allocation will work for your client.