#frogs #PersonalContact #FaceToFaceMeetings #princes
“You can’t smell a rose over the phone.”
That popular axiom is often the answer when someone is making a sales contact, but doesn’t want to say too much over the phone.
The salesperson would rather the potential client see the presentation as it was designed to be presented. In other words, face to face.
Attorney Jeffrey Babener talks about the value of personal contact, vs. an e-mail, social media, text and other more modern – perhaps, more popular – forms of communication in his essay titled “Kiss That Frog! – Personal Communication”
“Technology is changing the game, but don’t sell short the old-fashioned hug or handshake as the best bonding and recruiting machine yet invented,” Babener writes.
“You’ve got to kiss a lot of frogs to meet a prince … You’ve got to spend time with frogs and you’ll find them in the marshes … Remember, kissing is a contact sport … That is, if you really want to meet a prince,” Babener quotes from an old marketing fairy tale.
In today’s world, we tend to forget about personal contact. We go to restaurants, or even household dinner tables, and see everyone at the table looking down, eyes on their devices.
We even hear about folks texting each other while sitting next to each other. Perhaps we can call that the Text Next syndrome. That can be useful if you are around a (pick one: boring, angry, long) meeting table and you want to have a private conversation without the others knowing.
But if you are in sales – face it, we are all in sales in one form or another – and you want to recruit a client, team member etc., there is nothing more effective than meeting face to face.
No, you don’t have to kiss or hug the person – often, that’s not appropriate. But you should talk face to face.
Even those dinner-table interactions should involve live conversation. They should involve looking up at the person to whom you are speaking.
Now, let’s look at what Babener means by “frogs.” Leadership expert Brian Tracy wrote a little book titled, “Eat That Frog,” to advise that doing the unpleasant sometimes yields the best results. In Babener’s context, however, one may have to go into the reeds, weeds or marshes to find the frog, which can turn into a prince after hearing what you are presenting.
Some of those frogs will hop away, slither back into the water etc. Others will turn into a prince – a top client, or team member.
If you are in a job now that feels like a swamp, and you want out, and are looking for something to bring out the princely being you are, and provide a potentially life-changing situation for you, message me.
Sometimes, you have to head to the marshes to escape the swamp.
Sometimes, you have to look for the person who not only understands your warts, but will embrace them.
Sometimes, you have to weed yourself from the reeds, and look for someone who will help you find new and better reads.
Sometimes, great princes are found in places you would never think to go. And, if you find that prince, it could change your life.
Peter
Tag Archives: devices
HOW MUCH TECHNOLOGY IS TOO MUCH?
Is the pace of technological change too fast for you?
To many, it is, but, like an avalanche, we are hard pressed to stop it or slow it.
Two columnists in the Feb. 2, 2014, edition of the Tennessean newspaper in Nashville weighed in on the subject.
Saritha Prabhu worries that smart phones make us stupid, and, while we are racing to make robots more human, we may be losing some of our humanity.
Prabhu saw the movie “Her,” with her son. It’s the story about a college freshman who falls in love with his artificial-intelligence-imbued operating system. It’s OK to love a device for what it does for you, but to “fall in love” with a device? Until the entire human anatomy becomes artificial, that’s physically impossible – or so it seems.
Meanwhile, business columnist Julie May talks about cars that drive themselves, virtual gaming and other technological advances that are either here, or rapidly approaching.
We’ve gone from seats that automatically adjust to your preferred driving position to backup cameras to cars that park themselves. May sees the day coming when cars will drive themselves. Indeed, TV news has also reported on cars that can communicate with other cars on the road, thus warning each other of trouble ahead – trouble that is currently out of human eyesight. Once the car is warned of trouble, it can act accordingly, thus avoiding an accident.
May talks about how the self-driving cars can enable a driver to, say, prepare for a meeting while his car is taking him to work. Or, how a driver can turn to the back seat and settle a dispute between or among children, while the car is driving itself to the destination.
Talk about implications for the future! Those of us at the beginning of our careers take heed. Think about how a machine could do your job! Impossible? Maybe now. But if you are young, you may see your job done by a machine eventually.
That device you might be falling in love with could put you out of work before you are ready to retire.
If you are in or near retirement, technology will undoubtedly make your elder years easier, and could prolong your life. Hopefully, you will never outlive your money!
Oh, you are so good at what you do that a machine could NEVER replace you? After all, machines can do simple things, but cannot possess human “creativity.” Don’t bet the farm that it will NEVER happen. And, if your job involves very little creativity, take it to the bank that you’ll see a machine do it eventually.
You older folks may have been FORCED to retire before you had enough money. Or, you gave your children lots of stuff and didn’t put away enough for your later years. Is there a way to deal with this?
There are many ways to create an income stream just in case a machine replaces you, or to boost your retirement nest egg. For one of the best, visit www.bign.com/pbilodeau. You might see a “people” business for which technological advances will only be a plus.
As for technology advancement’s pace, it’s out of your hands. You can resist it personally by not availing yourself of these new products and devices, but your protest will not stop or slow anything. Eventually, you will succumb. So, you might find your stress level reduced if you EMBRACE change, rather than resist it.
If birth rates are already declining among some population groups, imagine how much they will decline if humans “fall in love” only with devices.
Peter