It's Easy to Move a Piano Down a Flight of Stairs

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.