#1090 Catching Flies

My Nana said it, and my mom echoed it. "You get more flies with honey than you do with vinegar." If that's true, why isn't everyone making every request as sweetly as possible?

Because universal qualifiers don't hold up, EVERYONE and EVERY REQUEST is impossible. Some of you will say that the other person's attitude disallows you from making a sweet request. That, somehow, their odious persona precludes you from being friendly.

Some of you will say that some folks need to be barked at to get the desired result and are somehow immune to gentle persuasion.

Here is my hypothesis, and my experience proves it to be true. I control the thermostat. I set the temperature of my day and of my encounters. Patience and polite questioning get me what I need 99% of the time. Does it take longer? Yes, it does. Is it more trying? Sometimes it is.

Let me tell you a quick story. When I ran a copier company, a sales rep needed our dispatcher to get a tech to his account pronto. He came to me to use my clout as VP/GM to immediately jump the line and dispatch the tech. I agreed with the urgency and called my dispatcher. I asked about her day. I asked about the service board and the area where I needed help. Then, I politely asked her if she thought she could reroute a tech to meet my needs. She struggled with it for a few minutes, and we talked through it. In the end, she decided she could complete my request.

When I disconnected the call, my rep was livid. "Why does it take 10 minutes of BS to get something done around here? You're the boss. Why didn't you just tell her to reroute the guy?!"

I certainly could have made the demand, and the tech would be rerouted, but then, so would the attitude of the dispatcher.

As for odious personalities – I set the tone. I will not allow the maliciousness of another to dictate my behavior. I try my best to answer to my standards.

After all, we are not trout. Rising to the bait is meant for smaller brains than ours.

Own Your Sales Gene.