We all suffer from the challenge of “preception.” This is
the condition where we make up our minds about something by placing what we see
into the context of what we have experienced before. Think of the notion of
“judging a book by its cover.”
But it’s more than just appearances. Preception involves
reaching a conclusion of what someone is saying or trying to accomplish without
taking the time to listen, ask questions, or consider a different point of view.
Preception can be caused by comments we hear from others, stereotypes, or gross
assumptions that we haven’t validated.
Years ago, I had to get an old upright piano out of my
house. The piano mover came with two other people, put the piano on a dolly and
rolled it to my front door. Then, they lifted the piano and carried it down the
staircase to the front walkway.
When he had the piano safely secured in his truck, and I was
paying the bill, I said, “It must be really hard to move a piano down a flight
of stairs.”
He looked at me and smiled. “No, it’s easy to move a piano
down a flight of stairs,” he said. “It’s hard to stop a piano from going down a
flight of stairs.”
Same situation; different perspective.
It made me aware that I had to be more attentive to the
possibilities that people who I deal with in my personal and professional life,
especially in sales, often look at a situation from a completely different
angle than I do. I needed to be more careful about not operating on the basis
of preceptions. I thought about moving pianos from the top down. A piano mover
is thinking from the bottom up.
The same is true in a client conversation. When we are
trying to engage a client with our services, we often look at the client from
the view of what we want to sell, not what the client needs to buy. You may
have a terrific product or service that can bring the client tremendous
benefits. But is that what they need now? Take some time to listen to the areas
they focus on in discussions with you. Whatever they talk about most is likely where
they need help. Find a solution to that problem and you’ve started a journey to
being an attentive and trusted business partner.
Like the piano mover, it’s not about getting something from
the top to the bottom; it’s about focusing on a big problem and using
experience to help prevent a disaster.
