Rick Baker Thought Posts
Left Menu Space Holder

About the author

Name of author Rick Baker, P.Eng.

E-mail me Send mail
Follow me LinkedIn Twitter

Search

Calendar

<<  August 2010  >>
MoTuWeThFrSaSu
2627282930311
2345678
9101112131415
16171819202122
23242526272829
303112345

View posts in large calendar

Recent Comments

Comment RSS

Stories & Questions

by Rick Baker
On Aug 18, 2010
People like to hear stories.
 
I bet this dates back to the early caveman-hunter days.
 
In those days they didn’t have iPads and I’m pretty sure they didn't even have books. So, some hairy fellow, all beaten up and scarred would arrive at his cave after a hard day chasing sabre-tooth tigers and other such creatures, beating them into submission, and dragging them home for the clan dinner.
 
And, of course, everyone wanted to hear the story behind the huge, charred racks of ribs. So, the proud hunter would share the story of the day. Everyone would get full and get entertained. Then they would fall asleep beside the safety of the fire. The next morning, they would wake up and tackle a new day…another day, another huge beast to cook.
 
At some point, cave folks didn’t completely follow the hunters’ stories. So, they started asking questions. That was a pivotal point in human pre-history. The story tellers learned how to delve into the details. Also, they noticed certain stories and certain details generated more interest and more excitement amongst the cave-crowd. They concentrated on these types of stories with a win-win attitude.
 
Every once in a while one of the cave people would ask a really bad question and the story teller would bonk him with a tree-branch club. This helped the cave community develop guidelines for fair and reasonable questions.
 
That's a prehistoric rendition of how storytelling and questioning began. Sure, there were stories before these exciting cave-hunter stories. There were cave-gatherer stories and questions and later cave-scavenger stories and questions. But, those stories lacked cave-pizzazz. No sizzle.
 
Like: "Blork... [I found some berries today.]" "Gluck... [where?]" "Mrunk... [over by the river.]"
 
Simply, not very exciting stuff.
 
But, when cave-living folks started telling hunting stories and asking hunting questions, well, that was magic.
 
That's when civilization took off.
 
As did evolution.
 
And, ever since those cave-days the hearts and imaginations of human beings have been captured by good stories and good questions.

Tags:

Beyond Business | Questions?: The Art of Asking Good Questions

Sales Tweet #23

by Rick Baker
On Aug 18, 2010
Sales Tweet #23 It happens. If a Client is in a really bad mood...don't push. Volunteer to come back another day.
 
The Thinking Behind the Sales Tweet:
Here, we are talking about both listening and watching body language. If a Client is having a real tough day then it just might be better to end the visit and come back another day. One sales error I made taught me this lesson. I met for over an hour with a fellow who was in agony due to a recently-broken foot. All of us kept asking if he was OK and he kept saying Yes. The meeting was a waste of time for all of us. I could have saved all of us the time and the poor fellow the agony by cutting the meeting real short.

Tags:

Emotions & Feelings @ Work | Sales | Thought Tweets

Copyright © 2012. W.F.C (Rick) Baker. All Rights Reserved.