: by Emma Clarke aged 9
As everyone knows,
crocodiles are large fearsome creatures so if you want to catch one you have to follow the rules really carefully.
If you want to catch a crocodile the first thing you have to do is to go where the crocodiles are.
(We know a lot of Sales and Marketing people who haven’t worked that one out yet)
Crocodiles as we all know live down at the swamp, so if you want to catch one you have to go down to the swamp,
but before you set out you must make sure you take the right tools.
What you need to take with you if you want to catch a crocodile is:
- a blanket a pair of binoculars,
- a pair of tweezers
- and a match box.
So, making sure that you have remembered your tools, you set off down to the swamp.
When you get there you go down to the edge of the swamp and you spread your blanket out on the ground.
You take your tools and you carefully lay them out, then you lay down and go to sleep.
Eventually the big old crocodile will come by and poke his head up out of the swamp.
What will he see?
He will see you lying there asleep on the blanket!
“What’s going on here” the crocodile will think “I know what’s going on here, sleeping is what’s going on here”
and with that the big old crocodile will haul himself out of the swamp and lie down beside you on the blanket
and because you are sleeping he will go to sleep to.
(This technique is better than diving into the swamp with a net and a bowie knife)
[which many salespeople use to Close Deals!]
But because you went to sleep first you will wake up first , (this is the INSIGHT)
and there beside you on the blanket is this great big fearsome crocodile
and you think: “How can I deal with this?”
So you take your binoculars and you turn them round
and you look at the crocodile through the binoculars backwards
so that reduces him to a more manageable size.
Then you take the tweezers and you put him in the matchbox! Simple!
In the case of Eating an Elephant, then this is BEST done in bite-sized chunks, which may be kept in a match box!
So you see nothing is impossible
and with the right approach it is possible to simplify the hardest task and make it seem easy!
- The moral for Salespeople? Take this nine year-olds advice:
- Go where the Customers are.
- Bring the RIGHT tools.
- ADAPT to their situation
- Bring INSIGHTS which enable you to “reverse the binoculars”
and VALUE to act as “tweezers” to put them in the Box!
N.B. I have to thank Emma for her insight; we should all learn how to think like 9 year olds if we want to Sell!
I also MUST acknowledge Dave Brock’s Great posts on Sales Fundamentals
http://partnersinexcellenceblog.com/principles-of-sales-part-1-interactions-between-people/
for putting me in the frame of mind
to see the TRUTH which Emma’s insights presented.
