The Fear of Acceptance

Ever wondered what prevents you from making the killer sale? There are a lot of reasons that can provide factual reasoning to failure. "The client doesn't have budget", "The client doesn't like us", " The client does not see value", or one of my favorites " The competition is priced way below, and our finance guys just don't get it". I have used these from time to time and some time it cuts ice, and some times at the end of the day you simply know that you simply didn't give it all what you could have...

However in your same group, you will find some sales guys who just seem to crack the puzzle each time. Seven out of ten times they win the deal. The rest of the times, they ensure that the competition is actually having to buy the deal. I was talking to one such sales guy sometime back, and he shared with me a story. This story, made me understand the very epicenter of failure and also about how we need to have a level of acceptance, so that we don't lose the lesson in the process. The story goes something like this...

In a village in the heartland of India, there was a river. The only way to cross the river was to use the services of the local ferry man. Although this might sound like a monopoly, the ferry service was a duty than a business for the family that was doing it. Once there was this rich businessman who needed to cross the river. He came over and noticed that the ferry was being chartered by a young girl who was barely in her teens. The businessman was surprised to see this.

At the same time he also saw an opportunity to throw some weight around and get off with a lesser fee. He got into the ferry and exuded a haughty attitude, which made the girl wonder about how the ride would go by.

As the ride went on, the businessman asked this girl "Girl, where's your father? Isn't he supposed to be doing this, rather than having a girl like you work at it?".

The girl was silent and somberly replied "Sir, last month in the hurricane night my father went fishing and never returned".
The businessman was slightly taken aback. He also felt sad for the young girl who had to do this to make both ends meet.
As the ride went on, he asked, "So girl, who else is in your family".

The girl replied " well sir its me, my mother and my younger brother".
The man asked "what about others? your grandfather, or your dad's brothers?".

The girl replied "Sir, my uncle drowned in the lake, and my granddad also met with the same fate".

The man asked " Girl, dont you feel afraid of doing something which killed the whole of your family?"

The girl smiled and kept rowing. The man was perplexed at the calm of the girl.

After sometime, the girl asked "Sir, how did your father die?"

The man answered "He died peacefully sleeping in his bed"

The girl asked "and his father?"

The man replied " well he also passed away in his bed after a good day of business"

The girl quietly asked " well sir, then are you not afraid of sleeping in the bed"?

The man quietly handed the girl her fee and a tip, and moved on to his destination.

In the world of sales, the analogy is very similar to a situation, where we encounter a tough client situation, we accept the consequences, keep true to the basics and do a good job on it...
and as they say, the rest is history....

Till next time happy sailing....