Always better to know who you are speaking to, particularly if you're trying to sell something; remember that we're all always trying to sell something, be it sales or non-sales.
The first lesson to learn is that if you're going to a meeting, find out who you're meeting. That's not hard these days; in fact, it's devastatingly simple and easy. Once you find out who you're meeting, you can understand the best way to approach that meeting.
The second thing to do if you've been unable to find out who you're meeting is to ask that person, " What is it that you do here?” That gives them the opportunity to tell you what they want to tell you about themselves and perhaps the position that they have.
Several times recently, I've watched people devastatingly underestimate either me or the people who work with me, some of the extraordinary members of the team at The Campbell Clinic and Campbell Academy, when someone comes in to meet them and puts them down or denigrates them because they think they ‘are just …’ - fill in the blanks.
Nobody ever really is just a fill-in-the-blanks, but if you choose to approach your meetings where you're trying to build a connection with someone like that, it's destined to fail you.
Many years ago, after I had worked in the hospital service in the East Midlands for a couple of years and made a lot of friends, and I think managed to help people in lots of different ways and gain at least some recognition and respect, I found myself in practice, phoning back into the hospital to ask one of the junior members of the team to see a patient who was in difficulty.
I'll never forget the conversation with that individual, where they put me down and put me in my place.
It turned out I was massively more experienced than the individual that I was talking to and better qualified. I knew their consultants, the registrars, the nurses in the department; it didn't take long for the person to find out ‘what they had done’.
The individual himself had also applied for a job in another hospital that I'd worked in, and the consultant had phoned me to ask what I thought of them. You never know who you're speaking to; you never know how it might reflect on you further down the line with other people.
Better to be humble, always.
Better to have humility.
Better always to imagine that the daftest person in the room is actually you.
Blog Post Number - 4536
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