Tuesday, September 04, 2007

No land in sight….

When Christopher Columbus woke up on day 66, he said “Today we’ll find land.” Of course, this wasn’t the first time he had said this. As a matter of fact, he said it more than his crew wanted to hear. But his clarity and certainty were over-powering, even to his shipmates.

See, when you are 66 days at sea and your crew is mounting a mutiny and forcing you to turn back, they need leadership; they need confidence…most of all, they have to trust and believe in you!

We have all heard the phrase, “you have to sell harder internally than you do to the customer.” Here is great tip on how to sell internally when you have obstacles standing in the way from you and the sale.

It doesn’t matter if you are dealing with IT, management, the legal department, operations or any other area that assists you in delivering your solution to the customer. If you start any conversation with the “we can’t do it” attitude, you are shot from the start.

These departments want to trust you. They have to see confidence, an OUTSTANDING attitude, positive thinking, a “moving heaven and earth” mentality. Simply put, a “can do” attitude.

You will always have hurdles internally in your organization. But the key is for all involved to stay positive. Everyone!!! One non-positive person can tarnish any progress trying to be made for the entire group. Get everyone on board to have a clear mind, step back, and start saying, "Why can’t we?" instead of “We can’t.” And even when you come up with reasons why you can’t do something…challenge them. But challenge them positively…not negatively. That is the difference. Simply say, “Is there a better way?” And, yes, even you can discover a "New World" within your own organization. Have fun and good selling.

Great stuff from John Costigan

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