Comments on: Guest Post: Do You Know Who’s In Control?

By: Joel D Canfield

Joel D Canfield — Mon, 31 May 2010 19:42:10 +0000

Eliz, this is like shaking the ‘empty’ M&Ms bag and realising there’s one more. H’ray! *crunch*

Collaborative effort; I like that.

By: ElizOF

ElizOF — Sun, 30 May 2010 18:47:19 +0000

I’m a sucker for a great sales pitch … but if I dont care about the product, you won’t win. If there is no added value, you won’t win. Buying and selling is a process that requires collaborative effort. What works for Jim won’t necessarily work for Joe. Know your customer, know your product, know when to take it down/turn it up a notch.
Loved the article … sorry I was a bit late to visit Joel, but I made it, right?
Cheers,
Eliz

By: Jerry

Jerry — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 06:35:50 +0000

I was going to chime in on this, but you folks pretty much covered it. Great post, Joel, and great comments by everyone who participated. I think the consensus is that, while the salesperson controls the sales process and always needs to be working at moving the process forward, the customer controls the buying process, and we can’t move that along without their cooperation. That said, we need to work at collaboration with the customer to move both processes forward and in sync.

Thanks again to everyone who chimed in; you are all brilliant!

By: Joel D Canfield

Joel D Canfield — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 00:05:00 +0000

Thanks for the vid link, Anne. Indeed, we’re now dealing with universal forces in many cases, human constants, rather than ‘marketing’ or ‘selling’ or whatever task or activity we think we’re engaged in.

By: Anne McCrossan

Anne McCrossan — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 12:44:35 +0000

Great post Joel and it’s sage advice

This is, too. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xAA71Ssids

For me I found that one look at it was enough to dissolve any preconceptions about control. As we see a social tsunami in motion, I think that’s ever more the case now.

By: Joel D Canfield

Joel D Canfield — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 00:13:37 +0000

Ian, your point about the people needed expert guidance is well-taken. Jerry hasn’t jumped in yet, but I know his primary adjustment to my post would have been to include the balance of expert guidance by whoever’s doing the selling.

I much appreciate your ability to constantly challenge me to stretch my thinking just a little bit and see more greys amongst the the black and white I’m so fond of. Thanks, Ian.

By: Ian Stewart

Ian Stewart — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 20:58:43 +0000

Excellent article Joel, I mainly agree with you but there are times when people will choose to do the wrong thing because they lack courage or it’s even just the discomfort of change. Then they need to be almost cornered so that they realise they have to find the courage, admit the price of change is too high, or realise they are on the wrong path and need your help to find the right one.
I think your clients made their choice when they came to you for coaching, once in your session you also are in charge.

However they have the power ultimately, as you said.

By: Joel D Canfield

Joel D Canfield — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 21:12:12 +0000

Just released: an excellent manifesto at ChangeThis.com about the dual mindsets of truly great sales people, by Lisa Earle McLeod: http://changethis.com/manifesto/show/68.02.SalesSuperstars

By: Joel D Canfield

Joel D Canfield — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 18:16:51 +0000

@CoCreatr—Bernd, thanks for helping clarify the thought that it’s a collaboration, with each of us playing the correct role the best we can. A ship without sails and a ship without a rudder are equally useless.

By: Joel D Canfield

Joel D Canfield — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 14:53:38 +0000

Further slanting the conversation, I highly recommend this slightly NSFW video by the aforementioned Tom Bentley

http://www.youtube.com/user/bentguy1#p/a/u/0/-wUQVe3Kugw