Greg's Right FIT #389

Quick notes to help you grow your business in less time with less effort. . . sometime next week. 

In this issue: 

- Thoughts on Buying
- Being Human
- Random Stuff

Thoughts on Buying

• We like to buy. It makes us feel better, either by avoiding pain or getting some sort of pleasure. We're not so keen on being sold. It's like a lot of things. We like the outcome but don't always enjoy the process quite as much. 
• Marketers love to tell their stories. The important story, however, is the story buyers tell themselves about your product. Fall in love with how buyers tell their story. 
• Read "Influence: The Psychology of Influence," by Dr. Robert Cialdini. Sellers use it as a reference, but read it his intended audience: a buyer. Insights into why we do what we do. 
• It's time for fishing. Fly fishers, practice your nail knots: https://www.animatedknots.com/ (knowing knots is like having scars - it makes you more interesting)

Being Human - Questions

"It’s easier to see both sides of a question than the answer."
– Arnold Glasow

If there is a superpower top business developers have, it's questioning. Having the tools to dig into conversation with precision requires conscious effort. Using Dennis Mathies' "Precision Questioning" as a guide, here are some tools for exploring thoughts critically. 

• Get into the "so what." Who is this relevant to? What are the assumptions behind it? How urgent is this? Where does it fit in the bigger picture?
• Explore definitions. Are there alternative meanings to the terms we're using? Can we quantify? Does the term change when we use it to persuade?
• Dig into rationale and evidence. What is the speaker assuming about their audience? Is it possible the opposite is true too? Is there evidence to support a claim? Are there processes to confirm or refute claims?
• Get to the cause, or effects. Is this a primary or secondary claim? Are we looking at a trigger? Does this happen in all circumstances? What are best/worst cases? Is this internal or external? 
• Drilling down on action to be taken. Who is doing what? When is it happening? Why are we doing this? Are outsiders needed? What comes next? How is progress measured? What is the backup plan?

These categories of questions help us deepen the dialogue with our prospects. Most of our business development conversations don't come neatly packaged in a story, or even contain an outline. Without guideposts, we rely on good questions to shape the narrative. The good news is we have natural questioning talents. The problem is we tend to stick to category unless we practice. (like relying on "5 why's")

Use this list to identify where you're strong and where you can use some work. The first step is recognition, they say. Figure out where you are, then get to work! 

Good stuff. 

Random Stuff

"It's good. It's good. The job is done. We can go home now."
– NBA Finals MVP Nicola Jokic

This week my hometown basketball team, the Denver Nuggets, won a big trophy. They are NBA World Champions. As a kid I remember winning a red-white-and-blue Nuggets basketball in a raffle. (This was back in the ABA days when they last had a shot at a championship. They actually played with a red-white-and-blue ball!) This year's run included hearing from a lot of my childhood friends, reliving youth basketball glories. 

As a 12-year-old I was lucky enough to play a game before the Nuggets took the court. We got a short tour of the lockers at McNichols sports arena and went on an hour before the pros warmed up. I don't remember much about the game, but I do remember who the Nuggets played: the Utah Jazz. 

As I walked off the court and some of the pros were coming on to the floor, I walked into Jazz center, Mark Eaton. 

Mark was 7'4". I wasn't full-grown, but I was pretty tall for a 13-year-old. It felt like I was eye-to-eye with his belly button. Pro players are not normal humans. They are so big, so fast, so talented. In 1983 the Nuggets and Jazz made it to the playoffs, but those were the Magic-Bird days, years before giant television contracts. The league minimum was $40K, or about $122K today. A few of the players lived in friend's neighborhoods. You could run into these giant people at the movies. Today the league minimum is between $1.7 million for a rookie, $3 million if you have 10 years experience. It's a different game. 

I saw Mark Eaton at a trade show a few years ago. He was exhibiting a sports drink two booths away from mine. Before I knew who it was, I would see people taking pictures with him and think, "why is that guy standing on the table?" It took a minute to figure out who he was. It took a few more minutes before I told him about my brush with him in 1983. A short time later I learned his tropical shirt size was 3X tall. Then the people who hired him gave me a look, so I moved on. Reluctantly. 

Good work, Nuggets. Good work.