Training Cornwall

The transition I made from nursing to sales was a tough one in many respects and resulted in a number of times that I sat in my car and cried!   It was facinating that when I wore a nurses uniform that people were really friendly towards me (no jokes please) but when I dressed in a suit and carried a filofax that I was the devil incarnate!  For 2 years of selling I also had my nursing job, because the transition was so acute.

I recall on one morning I waited on the door step of a customer and as the female manager raised the shutters, from the inside she glared at me as she saw me standing there.  My response was to say “I know, I should be dressed as a leper and carry a bell!”  She started to laugh and asked if that happened alot - I assured her that it did happen quite often.

I have evolved as a person on so many different levels and continue to do so.  I never gained a ‘thick skin’ but I found it encouraged me to see other people’s point of view and to seek to understand rather than take it personally.  We all have to sell some of the time, whether it is a product or an idea that we want our boss to use, we all need to use these skills at times.

Selling is not a bad word but like all skills it needs to be practised and refined to work effectively.

The pre-call objective is something utilised commonly in the sales world.  The idea is that before making a call to or usually visit to a customer is to decide what you, the sales person want the customer to do as a result of your call.  “I am going to have a chat with him and see if he is aware of our product” is not a good example - if the customer is made aware of the product we have not made any attempt to ensure he will then order the product.  A better example would be “to ensure that the discussion we have will result in an order for ‘x’ amount of product, by next month”

This sort of pre-planning can be used in other situations too.  With patients I would discuss the concept of what they wanted from any specialist services they were offered.  What outcome would you like?  How will you be able to support that?  What difference will it make?  It’s about empowerment and that is so important for all of us.

So what could this mean for you?  In any situation where you have to negotiate or discuss an idea - think about what you want to get out of that interaction?  By being clear about what you want to achieve then you are more likely to get what you want.  Have an idea of the absolute minimum but be prepared to take it a stage further, if it is appropriate.  If you have a complaint about a service - before you blow your top - think about the outcome you want.  If you go in to ‘let off steam’ then that is indeed what will happen.  If you go in to ’secure a voucher for the next week’ then you will probably accomplish both - how much better would that be?

If you have ever come out of a meeting and not secured what you wanted then - maybe you didn’t really want it or maybe you weren’t clear about what you wanted……..

Have you ever had that feeling of dread with how your week is going to play out?  I had one of those feelings just a few weeks ago and decided to do something different.  Change is not something I find too difficult but trying to coach myself was an interesting concept.
I was due to run 3 workshops on subjects that I had not delivered before - interview skills, volunteer engagement and cold calling.  I had prepared the paperwork (helped by my evening class for my CertEd) but I was anxious that interest would be maintained and I would not make an idiot of myself.  I had rehearsed and written a script but I wanted to appear calm, professional and knowledgeable.  I have numerous motivational self-help books and decided to seek their help.  One of them mentioned that if you feel something will go badly or wrong then you can be sure it will - the self-fulfilling prophecy.  The suggestion was not only to think about the tasks as ‘going well’ but to imagine you are in the situation.  To build a picture in your mind and consider how you would feel, what your delegates would be doing/saying, what you will be writing about the course after.  I believe it was this that made the difference in turning what felt like a challenging week into a positive experience.

Could this help you in over-coming some of your challenges?

Have you ever read something or heard something that irritated you but when you spoke to the author, they had a completely different meaning?  They had not meant to offend you but that was your perception of it.

We all see different things based on our own perspective and sometimes we agree with others and at other times we don’t.  The notion of a glass being half-empty or half-full is one that many people will be familiar with - it depends on your perspective - your perception.

The crabbed old woman is a poem directed at nurses about an elderly lady, asking them to see her and not ‘the crabbed old woman’.  It is about looking beyond what we can see on the surface and behind the obvious.  In our busy lives we tend to do so much in a rush, what we believe we see or know - it can be limited or incomplete. 

More than one perception can be invaluable.