#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