TOTALLY SUDDEN (+ troublesome) mindset shift - anyone else?

[GordonJ]

Originally Posted by -TW

I'm doing much better now, thanks.

I'm assessing + reassessing things. Kind of a mind-boggling process.

I went to the link with the ebook you recommended -- thanks. I haven't read the book yet ... also there's another book on that same page that looks good too.

Some of the suggestions on this board have been confusing + conflicting.

Ex...

A) One side says to approach prospects with a very specific + DEFINITE offer for ONE particular service or product. The other 'side' say s NOT to do that, but rather to build up trust (in general) over time, and NOT to offer anything specific. Like, "I do [general category], and if you ever need anything like that, give me a call..."

My gut (+ experience + reality) tells me it's generally better to do the former, not the latter.

B) One side says, "HELL! If the prospect doesn't say YES right away, I just tell them "too bad" (in effect), and merely move on to the next prospect. This brings to mind the cliche "Mr. GRUFF," salesperson in a plaid jacket, chomping on a cigar. The "other" side says the opposite -- with concepts like, "the sale begins after the prospect says no," and, "the average prospect says NO 7 times (objections) before they say YES."

My gut (+ experience + reality) tells me to go with the latter philosophy, not the former.

But you can see how these opposing bits of 'advice' seem to 'disprove' and discredit one another, yes?

-- TW

PS: If I adopt M. Ross' perspective, I'd have to conclude that people like Zig Zigler are the anti-Christ -- that the glass is half-empty, and anyone who tells you otherwise is El Diabolo -- and I know that's not right.

I've frustrated many a golfer (and marketer too) with my HIT THE BALL teaching approach. It is different, much harder in the beginning to grasp and often too difficult a concept for the masses. It is, however, a far superior way to teach golf or almost anything else.

It is the ACTION-ReAction/Adjust/More ACTION/FEEDBACK/adjust MODEL.

Unless someone has great hand-eye coordination and is athletic to begin with, the PGA model of the golf swing won't work for the masses.

The HIT THE BALL way will work everytime. Why? Because it is personal.

Applied to a conflicting advice situation:

You have hit the ball. You know what doesn't work. From personal, in the field experience. You have results. But what appears to be lacking is the adjustment based on feedback.

If you slice the ball, it tells you that the club face was open and/or coming from the outside in at the time of contact. The trajectory and flight path tell you what the clubface was doing at impact.

You have to adjust your swing or club to decrease the slice.

YET, go to any driving range in the world. Watch golfer after golfer hit slice after slice after slice...all trying to change the result while applying the same action over and over and over. Isn't that the working definition of insanity, doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results?

No different in sales or service than it is in golf.

Would you take golf advice from Tiger Woods or from ME?

If you pick Tiger, then you simply don't get it. Taking advice from Tiger will kill your golf game simply because he is at a much higher level, and the REAL advice that could lower your scores needs to come from YOU and from someone who understands your swing and what you are trying to achieve.

Yet, in the real world, we buy books by Jack, Tiger, Lee, Arnie and Ben, thinking their PROFESSIONAL opinions will be helpful, and the national average of the average American golfer is the same as it was 30 years ago. Despite advances in courses and equipment.

If I were getting frustrated over what I was doing, I'd take a "social worker" approach, the one I used in the group homes for 10 years, and that is simply, TRY ANOTHER WAY.

If what you are doing isn't working, try another way. Cut off the advice.
Hit the Ball. ANALYZE it.

Hit the ball. Try another way. Hit the ball. Feedback.

And if it gets to the point of the frustration we've seen here...then,
maybe it is time to give up golf and take up tennis.

That is advice I've given to more than one of my golf students...and they, eventually, were glad they heeded the advice and are happily hitting the ball back and forth over the net, and not back and forth over the green.

Gordon Jay Alexander