• New eyes. When choosing two sets of eyes, the best approach is two sets of different eyes. For your most important writing, make sure they can be reviewed by someone else. Yes, this takes time, but the time it takes to proof now will always be less than the time it takes to correct later. Someone else’s eyes will see the things you don’t see—oversights, mistakes, awkwardness.

• Fresh eyes. If you only have yourself to work with, then fresh eyes are the next best approach. Even when composing the simplest email, if you take a moment to look away and do something else before sending, your refreshed eyes stand a better chance at top-quality proofing. This ties in with the distraction factor described in Chapter 2, except this time we want the distraction to happen. When you complete an email, before reaching for the Send button, move your eyes elsewhere: Find the files for your next task; get up and get some water or a snack; or simply look around the room or out the window, just for a few seconds. When your eyes return to the written text, the flow of concentration will have been broken. In this case it’s a good thing. For now, you will be able to review your work with reasonably fresh eyes. You will see errors that you didn’t see before. You might even remember to attach the attachments as promised in the letter. This pause, this slowing down of the act of writing helps ensure that you are saying what you intended to say and that the end result will be what you want it to be.

THE POWER OF PERSONAL PROOFING

The idea of slowing down long enough to proof correctly doesn’t apply just to the basic world of business writing. It also can be applied very successfully to you—a thinking, creative professional intent on furthering, or at least keeping your job and your lifestyle. For when searching for or working on a creative idea, one of the best ways of making it really great is to hear yourself speak the ideas out loud. This can best be achieved by allowing yourself time to slow down and talk to someone over coffee, perhaps, or lunch, or as mentioned earlier, during your commute. The first benefit gleaned from this technique is that your conversation partner might be able to offer her own comments and advice. But more important, when you hear yourself verbalize and externalize your own internal ideas, they become more real as you act as your own audience and critic.

The act of hearing yourself speak might seem excessive, even antiquated in the age of high-speed messaging, but in actual fact, in doing this you are leveraging a key technique for learning and creativity, which is similar to the procedure involved in creating a hologram. A hologram is an image made up of interference patterns created when two separate laser beams are bounced off an image or scene and are then redirected at each other and recorded on a glass plate. Holograms are intriguing in that they appear three-dimensional, and what they currently lack in color, they make up for in astonishing sharpness and clarity. The incredible thing about holograms is not just the three-dimensional image that you see when moving the holographic plate around, but also that if the plate were smashed, each broken piece would contain an entire copy of the hologram from the perspective of the piece’s location on the original plate.

This is how many researchers who deal with knowledge and memory theorize how the brain might work. Though there is no one particular area of the brain reserved for long-term storage, it is thought that when fresh waves of information, in the form of experience, interact with stored factual fragments, an interference pattern gets created and that becomes the thing that we call knowledge.

Now it must be added that there are many theories in the field of cognitive psychology and neuropsychology about how the brain supposedly works. However, most point to this vast, yet subtle interaction between different areas of the brain—some of which are chemical and some electric—in which knowledge and other mental skills interact with each other at phenomenal speed. That is why it’s so important to hear yourself speak. As your statements re-enter your brain by way of your ears, they interact with the slice of knowledge that originally created the idea, and create a kind of interpretation that is not only clearer, but deeper. There is more going on here than just “thinking it over.” You are also hearing it anew. And that’s something quite different. Can you find the time in your day to sit down with a colleague and “bounce your ideas” off him for a while? It will be worth more than wrestling the problem by yourself in silence.

THE POWER OF INFLUENCE THROUGH SELLING

When people think of selling, a common image that arises is that of the account executive, who has been schooled in cold-calling and spends most of his time hustling new business wherever he can find it. But really, all people are in sales in some fashion or other. It’s just a matter of what’s being sold. Salesmanship is not about moving widgets from one side of a counter to another. It’s about establishing and building trust with an end customer. Trust is an intellectual and emotional resource, not a packaged good. People in non-sales jobs, such as administration, internal accounting, reception, and management are all in sales: They’re selling ideas, image, motivation, communication, trust, and teamwork.

One of the primary reasons for writing this book, and for professing the value of cooling down in so many different areas of professional life is because I think the act of pulling your nose away from the grindstone is very important—your future employability demands it. Traditional sales-oriented professionals have always known the importance of hunting to survive, but this is not always the case for professionals in other vocations. Lawyers, for example, are able to solve problems, oversee procedures, and convince other people of their clients’ cause. But in recent years, lawyers and the firms they work for have discovered that in order to secure new business in an increasingly competitive global world, they need to actually learn how to sell, and more and more it is up to the lawyers themselves, not the marketing department, to do this.

Accountants and financial analysts have always been content to work quietly, diligently, and accurately. There are few extroverts in their field. But industries and economies change. An accountant need not become an extrovert to market her firm effectively. But if she is waist-deep in work and unable to clear her agenda until tax season has passed, she might be forced to stand by helplessly as business development opportunities for the quieter months pass her by. Selling need not be external and focused on business development. Consider the concept of internal, in-house selling. Take, for example, the frustration felt by someone who feels her manager has no idea of the amount of work she’s putting in on a weekly basis and who only seems interested in talking about it when the annual performance review is due. Similarly, think about an individual who is trying to influence a group to listen to and accept his ideas during a meeting or teleconference, especially where change is involved. Or what about a busy person who desperately needs to give herself permission to close her office door and get some work done without upsetting her employees?

All of these professionals—the lawyers, the accountants, and the busy “inside” people—need to cool down, just enough to assess, develop, and refine new core skills that will enable them to continue practicing their respective crafts. There is a need for all professionals to know more about how to rebuild desire in the heart of their specific customers. But how do you do that? By understanding that building your future, on any level or scale, is based on how you sell these ideas. Sales is based on trust, and trust is obtained through slowing down.

Building Trust

When I work with people who actually work in sales, helping them develop more successful strategies for obtaining and retaining customers, one of the primary questions I get them to answer is this: “What differentiates you from all the other people in that company across the street?” Price is generally not their final answer.

What buyers of any product or idea truly seek is a good feeling, an emotional reassurance that conveys something more than just a transaction of goods for money. They require demonstrations of accountability, reliability, support, and security that allow them to feel less exposed and less at risk, both during the transaction, and more important, afterwards. The commodity that buyers truly seek is trust. Nobody has a monopoly on that.

Trust comes from slowing down, from taking the time to understand the buyer’s needs and to illustrate to him how you address that need on many levels. This is true whether you are selling an actual widget or seeking to influence a senior manager or a colleague on a new initiative. Consequently, the best selling happens when it doesn’t appear overtly but instead occurs through slow, careful assessments of the needs of the buyer. People who sell in this fashion still communicate with their customers, of course, but their conversations are more relaxed. Their objective is to allow the customer to lower his walls of defense. It’s about hearing what the other person has to say and being able to offer a solution.

• Lawyers and accountants. For example, these professionals wish to enhance their firm’s position in the marketplace need not learn aggressive sales skills. All they need to do is to network more, take some time to connect with other people, including non-lawyers and non-accountants, and practice the art of active listening (see next section, below). This can be a great challenge, given how much of a professional’s formative years are spent racing the clock and handling overloaded schedules.

• Physicians and other professionals. Many doctors and others who practice by hourly appointment have learned, either the hard way or through education, the value of taking some time away from the practice—whether a single a day off or a year-long or a six-month sabbatical—not because it’s nice (remember the opening line of this book)—but because it’s essential to maintain a productive pace without falling ill or burning out. They need first to sell themselves on this idea, and then their colleagues, and finally their patients. Can they do it? What would be the alternative? Those who cannot sell in this manner may be setting themselves up for death-in-harness, and that does no-one any good.

• Buying private time. Let’s say you work in an office with an open-door policy. You desperately need some time to close the door so you can get some work done, but you don’t wish to alienate your employees. What do you do? By informing your staff that your door will never be closed for more than an hour, and keeping these closed-door periods to no more than two a day, you can build trust in the minds of the employees that their issues will still be answered and that you will still be available 80 percent of the day, and within a reasonable amount of time. It takes time to build and develop this habit, but the time taken wins you at least two hours of undisturbed work per day.

• Building trust by being available. You have a group of people assigned to you for a project. You have your own tasks to complete on this project, and you are already behind. What’s the best way to ensure timely completion? Take the time to incorporate the practice of “management by walking around,” (MBWA), a slow technique that requires that you leave your office and observe and interact with the people who report to you. Though this also takes time, it helps in two major ways that will ultimately speed up production: First it removes you from the Silo Effect generated by interfacing solely by email, and second it allows for greater interaction, in which the project’s vision and status is shared and reinforced with the group, resulting in greater levels of enthusiasm, loyalty, motivation, and autonomy.

How to Sell While Appearing Not to Be Selling

• Go into a conversation with an agenda and an objective, but let them sit on the back burner of your well-prepared, cool mind, rather than stating them outright.

• Find a topic of mutual interest and base the conversation on that.

• Let the conversation veer towards the needs or problems of the other person.

• Practice and demonstrate active listening.

• Generate a genuine sense of trust and camaraderie by sympathizing or agreeing with the other person’s statements.

• While doing this, formulate in your mind a plan as to how your objectives can best coincide with the other person’s needs.

• Make mention of these possible solutions casually and gently.

• Observe the other person’s body language, facial gestures, and eye contact and let these be your guide for further pacing.

• Seek to arrive at agreement.

• Before concluding the conversation, ensure that key points and agreements are repeated and clear.

• Identify next steps.

• After the conversation has concluded, and before starting anything else, write all of your thoughts and ideas down and schedule the follow-up activities.

ACTIVE LISTENING AND NEGOTIATION

Active listening basically comes down to the art of slowing down enough to allow the other person to do most of the talking in a conversation. People love to talk, especially about themselves. In a sales situation, any situation in which you wish to convince another human being to see things your way, the act of immediately charging ahead with benefit statements and compelling stories is superfluous and ill-timed. The best method for converting a prospect into a customer is to let her tell you what’s wrong. For a cold-call situation, this means demonstrating genuine interest in the person to whom you are talking and asking more about her than what you’re giving out about yourself. People will remember you as a fantastic conversationalist when you actually talk less and listen more. In a work situation, active listening means chatting with a manager or colleague about her problems and priorities first, even though your own priorities are just itching to get out.

Remember to avoid using the word “I.” When a person tells you something about herself, the immediate reaction for most people is to reciprocate with a personal connection. For example, Mary says, “My boss just asked me to work over the weekend again.” The common response might be, “I had to do that last week.” Although appearing to demonstrate sympathy, such a statement moves the spotlight away from Mary and on to you. An active-listening response would be, “How do you feel about that?” or “What are you going to do?” To listen actively, minimize the use of “I” and maximize the use of “you.”

Just look at this example, from Michael Gerber’s excellent book, The E-Myth Revisited, which highlights the power of slowing down through active listening and creative problem solving rather than charging ahead with high-speed reaction:

… what does the salesperson in a retail store invariably say to the incoming customer? He says, “May I help you?”… And how does the customer invariably respond? He says, “No, thanks, just looking.” … Can you imagine what those few words are costing retailers in this country in lost sales?

Instead of asking, “Hi, may I help you?” try “Hi, have you been in here before?” The customer will respond either with a “yes” or a “no.” In either case you are then free to pursue the conversation.²

Gerber’s proposed innovation demonstrates how easy it is to get past the defenses of anyone in any sort of “sales” situation and get straight on to progress. The overture is slower, yes, since any active-listening-based conversation takes longer to complete than making 10 cold calls or writing 10 impersonal emails. But this path to success, though slower in pace, is shorter. It’s a classic example of getting further by going slower.

Here are some other practical applications of this concept.

Dealing with Multiple Tasks and Conflicting Priorities

This is a classic time-management problem in which the stress of overload confounds clear strategic thought. The fast approach is just to buckle down and try to get it all done, even if it means putting aside other tasks and coming in on the weekend to catch up. A slow approach might be to take more time to inquire about the task(s) being assigned, specifically, their deadlines. This does not mean asking for more time to complete the job, nor is it a challenge to the authority of the person doing the assigning. It is simply a classic component of project management in which vision is shared across a team. In this case, the onus may be upon you as the recipient of the task request to seek out the information, to learn more about the role this particular task has within a larger project timeline or within the requestor’s own schedule. Once again, the key is to ask “you” questions rather than making “I” statements.

Managing Up

The term “managing up” demonstrates that selling can happen upwards, also. Managing up requires that you ask for more frequent opportunities to touch base and meet with your manager or other stakeholders. Meetings of this sort, which need not be overly long, allow for the opportunity to discuss future projects and timelines, and thus lay out more practical work times and delivery times in advance. In the case of two conflicting tasks, there may be many other suitable delivery times that will appease the requestor and work equally well. But without the use of this type of selling technique, there might not be any opportunity to discover them.

Delegation

Time-pressed business people seldom have the time or the patience to delegate. They live in the momentum of the moment. Yet support staff, colleagues, and subordinates are people who for the most part are eager and willing to learn new skills and take on new responsibilities. Such opportunities are often a primary reason for staying loyal to an employer: It’s not just the money—it’s the challenge. Support people can do great things, and in doing great things, can liberate you to realize even greater accomplishments. But true delegation, real assignment of tasks, and the establishment of trust take time.

Consider, for example, a commissioned salesperson, who, immediately after having had a great and productive conversation with a newly won client, then steps away from the phone to take care of the paperwork. Is this a good use of her time? It appears to be, since the paperwork has to get done, but would it not be more advantageous to get back on the phone—to strike while the iron is still hot? The energy and enthusiasm that come from making that great connection with a new customer should be immediately applied to connecting with another human being! To stop now is to let all that human excellence go cold, like pudding, and no-one wants to have to break through pudding skin to start over. But to leverage this type of momentum, the entrepreneur must slow down somewhere, just long enough to assess where and how the work that supports her business can be delegated. In this case she must sell to herself the idea that doing administrative work herself simply generates a false sense of busy-ness, which, at the end of the day amounts to far fewer sales.

How to Delegate Effectively

• First recognize that delegation is a slow act of education and trust, not a quick act of dumping.

• Allow time to seek out the right person for the job.

• Understand more about the people who work with/for you. Learn who is looking for or is ready for new challenges.

• Envision delegation as a three-step process. The first time you delegate a task, you are there to instruct and will therefore be doing all of the work anyway.

• The second time, you can expect a delegate to be able to complete the task to 50 percent satisfaction. Be prepared to schedule time to do the other half.

• The third time through, a delegate should be able to perform 75 percent of a task. Again, be prepared to schedule time to do the remainder.

• By the fourth time, a delegate should have both the skills and the confidence to complete the task almost to your own standards. Be sure to allow time to finish it off.

• This is hard work. But in the end you will have freed yourself up for more valuable tasks, and you will have created a more loyal and satisfied employee.

• If you have trouble deciding whether to delegate, remember two things: First perfection in others takes time. Second, just because you can do a particular task doesn’t mean you should be doing it. Do you have the desire to slow down and assess the options?