You Receive What You Give Off

Following on from the lessons in What Goes Around Comes Around, I’d like you to consider the following questions:

• How do you treat salespeople?
• What buyer are you?
• Are you the difficult prospect or the one you want to meet next?

Personally, I buy as I sell. Much like the Chinese bamboo tree and the grapevines, when I am the buyer, I am sowing the conditions which I want to return multiplied in a different season: honesty, clarity, and having the confidence to say no because this is what I want form others when they by prospect.

What’s more, I share my pain, I share my budget, and I look for someone that I can trust. If I need to say no, I say no. I never lie, and I never hide.

Through many experiences over my years in the industry, I’ve learned who I am, and what I want to emanate. I believe the two examples below will clarify how the law of sowing and reaping affects us and how we need to be more careful about our own behavior toward others – even towards animals.

From my experience.

No other example illustrates the lesson better, and I learned it in unusual circumstances while canvassing a neighborhood in Birmingham, Alabama.

I approached a house with a screen porch, eased onto the porch through the screen door and shut it behind me. As always, I knocked on the door but stood back to give the homeowner space to feel comfortable.

As I stood there waiting, I noticed a large German Shepherd dog laying on the porch about six feet from my feet. I saw him out of the corner of my eye. He knew I was there. He saw me walk up and he watched me knock on the door. Apparently, he was not upset by my presence. He was not nervous, and I was not nervous. Or, I was not nervous until I saw him.

Then he got nervous. Then I got scared. Then he got scared.

Immediately, I bolted out of the door, but the screen door did not hold him in. I ran around in circles around an oak tree with the German Shepherd gaining ground on me. Have you ever been in a fight with a dog? They growl and show their teeth. At this point, I had a decision to make because this dog was catching up with me. I stopped, and he stopped and growled.

From canvassing, I had a hand full of flyers, so I curled them up and took a swing at his nose. I did not know what was going to happen. As the paper flyers scraped across his nose, he decided to back down.

Across the street, the salesman I was helping canvass watched and laughed, and while he thought it was funny, to me, it was life or death.

What’s the lesson here?

You get what you give off. I was relaxed, and the dog was relaxed. I got nervous, and the dog became nervous. If I had relaxed when I saw the dog, the dog would have remained relaxed.

Lessons in cold calling.

In 2013, I had a president of a water restoration business requested I teach his salespeople how to cold call. He wanted to grow his referral base by cold calling plumbers.

As I arrived at his building, I was greeted by a sign that read NO SOLICITING ALLOWED!

We hope that a prospect would treat us with respect and listen to the reason we called. Considering the law of sowing and reaping, how much success can come from a message to prospects of no soliciting allowed; we don’t treat others how we want to be treated.

Sowing is about creating conditions, and the business has put resistance out there in the universe.

With this message in mind, I had a long conversation with the president about his attitude toward salespeople who are prospecting for business. Before we can start our transformation, the first step was to remove that sign and change his behavior toward people who prospect.

Treat all cold callers the same way you want your cold callers to be treated. Always allow cold callers to make their case. Be respectful, listen with an open mind, and say no thank you if you need. We want this to be the condition that our salespeople experience.

Create an open-door policy.

If you want to change your culture and expect that your salespeople will adopt your changes, an open-door policy is key.

To establish a proactive environment, react to cold calls with the respect you want your salespeople to receive.

When I make cold calls, I am treated with respect, prospects listen to what I have to say, and we have pleasant conversations because I treat salespeople respectfully and listen.

What goes around comes around; Birds of a feather flock together, and what you sow you will reap.

The bottom line.

The laws of the universe dictate what we receive, and it is called sowing and reaping. It is most evident in the natural world when you consider farming; plant corn, and you’ll get corn back multiplied. Plant tomatoes and tomatoes will grow multiplied.

This law also operates in the spiritual world, and although it’s unseen, it still affects your results.

Electricity and gravity operate under natural laws, and if you don’t understand the laws of electricity, it can prove fatal. Electricity heats our water, it lights our cities, and it cranks our cars. Nowadays, electricity is indispensable. We understand its laws, but if we are not careful, it can kill you.

Similarly, gravity has no respect for people. Whether a saint or a criminal, step off a high-rise building, and the consequence will be the same.

As a law, sowing and reaping are no different, you just can’t see its effects. I ask you a question. What seeds are you sowing that you want to stop planting?

If you are in sales, create conditions that you would like to encounter as a buyer when you are the buyer.