They say the mark of a reasonable person is he is free from his own concepts.
For example, he might believe in extraterrestrials, but then again, he's open to correction.
He appreciates the difference between beliefs about reality, and reality, itself. Illiberal people, and this is nothing to do with politics, merge the two, and insist that their view is correct.
They're like the hospital inmate who says: Support mental health or I'll kill you!
Anyway, it's tough to have meaningful, empathic conversations with psychotics. It's even dangerous to try.
This is why it's so refreshing when we encounter anyone in business that seems reasonable, flexible.
For instance, I tried to reach this watermark of tranquility the other day. Sitting in a meeting where the topic was sales coaching, two of the five honchos in the room tried to wangle me into saying, unequivocally, how many sales we could expect to produce from a new tele-sales unit.
I replied, "There are some things I know, and some things I don't know," and went on to provide a known number of appointments that can be set by phone folks in an hour.
But, I just don't know how much business we'll do selling your product. We'll do some, but how profitable we'll be is an open question. Sorry, I can't be more specific.
Instead of resenting this explanation, they smiled, knowing no one can predict something like this with any degree of accuracy.
You pay your money and take your chances, as they say.
I think salespeople should try this tack more often. They'd be surprised to find out that they just may seem more credible, than less, for leaving the bombast and boasting behind.
Dr. Gary S. Goodman, President of Customersatisfaction.com, is a popular keynote speaker, management consultant, and seminar leader and the best-selling author of 12 books, including Reach Out & Sell Someone® and Monitoring, Measuring & Managing Customer Service, and the audio program, "The Law of Large Numbers: How To Make Success Inevitable," published by Nightingale-Conant. He is a frequent guest on radio and television, worldwide. A Ph.D. from USC's Annenberg School, a Loyola lawyer, and an MBA from the Peter F. Drucker School at Claremont Graduate University, Gary offers programs through UCLA Extension and numerous universities, trade associations, and other organizations in the United States and abroad. He holds the rank of Shodan, 1st Degree Black Belt in Kenpo Karate. He is headquartered in Glendale, California, and he can be reached at (818) 243-7338 or at: gary@customersatisfaction.com
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