I guess I would elaborate on what I meant in my last post by "did it the wrong way". In a short discussion I had with a sales person, she did three things wrong:
- She did not understand her client's psychological needs. Instead, she has imposed her own opinion (which in truth was a good one) upon her client. In other words, she might have recommended something that was truly beneficial for her client, but the client did not appreciate it because she did not address the client's psychological resistance to the idea.
- She might have inadvertently made the client feel stupid by the tone and the words she used. The client may not be sophisticated, but making the client feel bad is not the right way of doing business.
- When she tries to make her point, she exaggerates. Even if she has the right concept, the exaggeration damages her credibility. All she has to do to correct the situation is to add some qualifying words like: usually, commonly, most likely, or hardly, seldom, or whatever the appropriate qualifying words necessary. By not having these qualifying words, the statements she made were factually wrong (though conceptually alright). The exaggeration back fired.
Anyhow, I'm not picking on her at all. I appreciate the fact that I can now notice these mistakes and I hope I don't make them myself. I'm sure I make gazillions of mistakes on the daily basis. I wish someone could point them out for me. But then again, if someone did point them out for me, I might get defensive.
I wish I have a personal English teach. Although I understand the language quite well, I feel I don't have the skills necessary to communicate with it. I mean, to really master it so the language always reflects the intent. For example, if I am genuinely interested and care about someone, my interaction with the person should reflect that. I should not appear self-interested or abrupt. (Not that anyone has told me that I appear to be that way, but I have some suspicions on how people might perceive me.) The more I observe people, and the more I notice how good or how bad people are with their communication, the more I realize the gap between my skills today and where I want to be.
So I actually like to deal with bad sales people, because they provide me with fantastic learning experience. Oh, please don't tell them, because I don't necessary what to pay them for these lessons, you know. ;-)
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