Finance Roll

In any business environment, those who are prepared will always do better, all other things being equal. Knowing your desired outcomes, anticipating potential obstacles and being very familiar with both your own offerings and your client's/customer's needs are all part of being prepared.

In addition, the power of flexibility is a little-spoken-of but very critical element of success. Flexibility means making a choice NOW that when faced in the future with challenges, you will roll with them and be flexible as to the way your outcome is achieved. You will remain open and fluid, alert to nuances and changes in contributing factors, and adjust accordingly.

Here is a little story to illustrate this:

I recently received an amusing call from a marketing company asking to speak to 'the owner' of one of my websites.

Right off the bat I noticed that I felt defensive, wondering whether there was an issue, or if this person was calling to try to sell me something (poor salespeople - they don't stand a chance with me!).

The gentleman proceeded to launch into his spiel about how they could help drive traffic to the website and how great their services were, and I had to interrupt. I asked him if he was aware that we owned a network of sites, and of which tactics and techniques we were already making use of in order to accomplish the 'driving more traffic' he was speaking of.

Well, no....but if I just listened to their list of programs available perhaps I would discover some that were of interest, etc. etc..

Did he have a number I could call him back at, I wondered? No.

The truth is, there is always more we can learn, and I am always interested in new and better ways of doing things. I work very hard at attaining and applying new knowledge, and also it is a pleasure for me. I could have been open to some of what this gentleman had to offer, but because he launched into his company spiel completely 'blind,' he was offensive to me as a consumer. It was obvious he was just going down some list of websites in the 'whois' database, and calling each to try and sell them a product or program, hoping he will catch some fish, so to speak.

A more intuitive salesperson may have been able to catch on to this, since I clearly informed him that we were internet marketers ourselves, and perhaps some intelligent questions would have led to a far more productive conversation.

A lesson here is, whether you are in sales or just in general when you are speaking to someone, be prepared. Learn a little about your subject before you speak to them; not only will it be flattering, you will enjoy far more productive and useful communication. Secondly, be flexible, which means LISTEN.

People are not closed books; they exhibit countless clues as to what they are thinking, including their tone of voice, their choice of words and their body language if in person. Effective communication means paying attention and rolling with whatever is currently happening, rather than following some pre-planned script.