When asked if I am a “glass half empty” or a “glass half full” kind of person, I respond with, “I am just thankful to have a glass with something in it!” To me, it doesn’t matter whether you are pessimistic or optimistic; the important underlying message is to always be thankful.
Be thankful
For starters, I am thankful for all the good people in this world. People who are able to look beyond themselves and focus on the success of others. I am thankful for the people who help others in their time of need. People who see vulnerability as a time for compassion, not exploitation. I am thankful for the honest people, the good people who return lost wallets or phones, the good people who hold open doors for someone with their hands full, or the good people who offer up their seat on the bus to another rider in need.
I am also thankful for all of the good people in the sales industry who truly care about their customer’s well-being and success. And last but definitely not least, I am thankful for you: a good person who is looking to improve their communication skills and sales skills without the use of manipulation. The good person who wants to improve sales and customer satisfaction.
Create goodwill
It has been said that the blank pages of history are filled with the acts of good people because they happen during periods of goodness and harmony. As Jeremy Rifkin writes in his massively enlightening book “The Empathic Civilization”:
“….much of [our] history is written about the pathology of power… Our collective memory is measured in terms of crises and calamities, harrowing injustices, and terrifying episodes of brutality inflicted on each other and our fellow creatures. But if these were the defining elements of human experience, we would have perished long ago. All of which raises the question “Why have we come to think of life in such dire terms?” The answer is that tales of misdeeds and woe surprise us. They are unexpected and, therefore, trigger alarm and heighten our interest. That is because such events are novel and not the norm, but they are newsworthy and for that reason they are the stuff of history. The everyday world is quite different. Although life as it’s lived on the ground, close to home, is peppered with suffering, stresses, injustices, and foul play, it is, for the most part, lived out in hundreds of small acts of kindness and generosity. Comfort and compassion between people creates goodwill, establishes the bonds of sociality, and gives joy to peoples lives.”
Comfort and compassion between people creates goodwill… good people create goodwill. Our mission at Killing Herb Inc. is to do just that—create goodwill between good people who sell services and products (and the good people who buy from them).
Ask yourself…
The days of “hit and run” selling are over. Most customers, if not all customers, are savvy to traditional manipulative sales tricks. Everyone likes to buy, no one likes to be sold. How do you respond to pushy, commission-breath, self-centred salespeople? Exactly. To solidify this point, I once again quote the wise Jeremy Rifkin:
“Caveat emptor – let the buyer beware – has been replaced with the belief that all exchanges should be, above all, completely transparent. The conventional notion that views market transactions as adversarial has been undermined by network collaboration based on win-win strategies… Cooperation bests competition.”
Cooperation bests competition. Ask yourself this question:
When I say or do things with my customer, would I want them to say or do things to me in the same way?