Cool Down (21 page)

The idea of slowing down long enough to proof correctly doesn't apply just to the basic world of business writing. It also can be applied very successfully to you—a thinking, creative professional intent on furthering, or at least keeping your job and your lifestyle. For when searching for or working on a creative idea, one of the best ways of making it really great is to hear yourself speak the ideas out loud. This can best be achieved by allowing yourself time to slow down and talk to someone over coffee, perhaps, or lunch, or as mentioned earlier, during your commute. The first benefit gleaned from this technique is that your conversation partner might be able to offer her own comments and advice. But more important, when you hear yourself verbalize and externalize your own internal ideas, they become more real as you act as your own audience and critic.

The act of hearing yourself speak might seem excessive, even antiquated in the age of high-speed messaging, but in actual fact, in doing this you are leveraging a key technique for learning and creativity, which is similar to the procedure involved in creating a hologram. A hologram is an image made up of interference patterns created when two separate laser beams are bounced off an image or scene and are then redirected at each other and recorded on a glass plate. Holograms are intriguing in that they appear three-dimensional, and what they currently lack in color, they make up for in astonishing sharpness and clarity. The incredible thing about holograms is not just the three-dimensional image that you see when moving the holographic plate around, but also that if the plate were smashed, each broken piece would contain an entire copy of the hologram from the perspective of the piece's location on the original plate.

This is how many researchers who deal with knowledge and memory theorize how the brain might work. Though there is no one particular area of the brain reserved for long-term storage, it is thought that when fresh waves of information, in the form of experience, interact with stored factual fragments, an interference pattern gets created and that becomes the thing that we call knowledge.

Now it must be added that there are many theories in the field of cognitive psychology and neuropsychology about how the brain supposedly works. However, most point to this vast, yet subtle interaction between different areas of the brain—some of which are chemical and some electric—in which knowledge and other mental skills interact with each other at phenomenal speed. That is why it's so important to hear yourself speak. As your statements re-enter your brain by way of your ears, they interact with the slice of knowledge that originally created the idea, and create a kind of interpretation that is not only clearer, but deeper. There is more going on here than just “thinking it over.” You are also hearing it anew. And that's something quite different. Can you find the time in your day to sit down with a colleague and “bounce your ideas” off him for a while? It will be worth more than wrestling the problem by yourself in silence.

When people think of selling, a common image that arises is that of the account executive, who has been schooled in cold-calling and spends most of his time hustling new business wherever he can find it. But really, all people are in sales in some fashion or other. It's just a matter of what's being sold. Salesmanship is not about moving widgets from one side of a counter to another. It's about establishing and building trust with an end customer. Trust is an intellectual and emotional resource, not a packaged good. People in non-sales jobs, such as administration, internal accounting, reception, and management are all in sales: They're selling ideas, image, motivation, communication, trust, and teamwork.

One of the primary reasons for writing this book, and for professing the value of
cooling down
in so many different areas of professional life is because I think the act of pulling your nose away from the grindstone is very important—your future employability demands it. Traditional sales-oriented professionals have always known the importance of hunting to survive, but this is not always the case for professionals in other vocations. Lawyers, for example, are able to solve problems, oversee procedures, and convince other people of their clients' cause. But in recent years, lawyers and the firms they work for have discovered that in order to secure new business in an increasingly competitive global world, they need to actually learn how to sell, and more and more it is up to the lawyers themselves, not the marketing department, to do this.

Similarly, physicians, whose approach to problem solving is scientific and rigorous, whose talents have traditionally focused on quick assessment and adherence to medical practices, may find themselves at a loss when it comes to selling, whether in terms of managing a practice, a department, or simply dealing with hospital executives. Many physicians are burning out and leaving their practices as a consequence.

Accountants and financial analysts have always been content to work quietly, diligently, and accurately. There are few extroverts in their field. But industries and economies change. An accountant need not become an extrovert to market her firm effectively. But if she is waist-deep in work and unable to clear her agenda until tax season has passed, she might be forced to stand by helplessly as business development opportunities for the quieter months pass her by. Selling need not be external and focused on business development. Consider the concept of internal, in-house selling. Take, for example, the frustration felt by someone who feels her manager has no idea of the amount of work she's putting in on a weekly basis and who only seems interested in talking about it when the annual performance review is due. Similarly, think about an individual who is trying to influence a group to listen to and accept his ideas during a meeting or teleconference, especially where change is involved. Or what about a busy person who desperately needs to give herself permission to close her office door and get some work done without upsetting her employees?

All of these professionals—the lawyers, the accountants, and the busy “inside” people—need to
cool down
, just enough to assess, develop, and refine new core skills that will enable them to continue practicing their respective crafts. There is a need for all professionals to know more about how to rebuild desire in the heart of their specific customers. But how do you do that? By understanding that building your future, on any level or scale, is based on how you sell these ideas. Sales is based on trust, and trust is obtained through slowing down.

When I work with people who actually work in sales, helping them develop more successful strategies for obtaining and retaining customers, one of the primary questions I get them to answer is this: “What differentiates you from all the other people in that company across the street?” Price is generally not their final answer.

What buyers of any product or idea truly seek is a good feeling, an emotional reassurance that conveys something more than just a transaction of goods for money. They require demonstrations of accountability, reliability, support, and security that allow them to feel less exposed and less at risk, both during the transaction, and more important, afterwards. The commodity that buyers truly seek is trust. Nobody has a monopoly on that.

Trust comes from slowing down, from taking the time to understand the buyer's needs and to illustrate to him how you address that need on many levels. This is true whether you are selling an actual widget or seeking to influence a senior manager or a colleague on a new initiative. Consequently, the best selling happens when it doesn't appear overtly but instead occurs through slow, careful assessments of the needs of the buyer. People who sell in this fashion still communicate with their customers, of course, but their conversations are more relaxed. Their objective is to allow the customer to lower his walls of defense. It's about hearing what the other person has to say and being able to offer a solution.

Active listening basically comes down to the art of slowing down enough to allow the other person to do most of the talking in a conversation. People love to talk, especially about themselves. In a sales situation, any situation in which you wish to convince another human being to see things your way, the act of immediately charging ahead with benefit statements and compelling stories is superfluous and ill-timed. The best method for converting a prospect into a customer is to let her tell you what's wrong. For a cold-call situation, this means demonstrating genuine interest in the person to whom you are talking and asking more about her than what you're giving out about yourself. People will remember you as a fantastic conversationalist when you actually talk less and listen more. In a work situation, active listening means chatting with a manager or colleague about her problems and priorities first, even though your own priorities are just itching to get out.

Remember to avoid using the word “I.” When a person tells you something about herself, the immediate reaction for most people is to reciprocate with a personal connection. For example, Mary says, “My boss just asked me to work over the weekend again.” The common response might be, “I had to do that last week.” Although appearing to demonstrate sympathy, such a statement moves the spotlight away from Mary and on to you. An active-listening response would be, “How do you feel about that?” or “What are you going to do?” To listen actively, minimize the use of “I” and maximize the use of “you.”

Just look at this example, from Michael Gerber's excellent book,
The E-Myth Revisited
, which highlights the power of slowing down through active listening and creative problem solving rather than charging ahead with high-speed reaction: