Let’s talk about sales and interpersonal communication, in this case the scenario took place on Linked In. I, admittedly, chose not to respond to someone selling me the same thing as the last 20 people because the messages were: long, wordy, salesy, talked at me, lacked questions, inquired nothing about my needs, too many ‘great’opporutnities…then the next message came, then the next one, as if I was being barked at…then the next one, then the next one with sarcasm, “did you get lost in your dms, lol” – That didn’t make me laugh out loud.
I decided to respond, that I hadn’t gotten lost, as a slightly humorous retort and to see where it might lead, her answer was the WRONG way to respond, she said:
“Ok, so you're just not interested in connecting/networking/conversation then? Awesome! Thank you.”
I never said that, I just said that I wasn’t lost in my DMs. There is a big difference. Rather than continue to ignore her, I chose to engage a little to see where it would take me with this person selling the same thing as so many others and using poor tactics as well. She failed. She didn’t want feedback, my business, anything to do with me…she lived a self-fulfilling prophecy in real time. She was completely void of any accountability or ownership that we were in “this place” because she put us here and clearly wanted to learn nothing to aid her in the future.
I won’t get into the back and forth, but let’s just say that she wasn’t interested in any feedback. It was like I could see her spinning her own story about the situation, me and completely leaving any accountability for herself out of the equation. Well, life doesn’t work that way and people who choose not to be reflective will not be as successful, grow as fast or have people trust their work. People who choose sarcasm will only create enemies or resentful friends/colleagues because sarcasm is not humor. “Saying that you are sarcastic is like saying ‘I want a blank check on being nasty’ in the name of ‘I was just kidding.’ It is not humor. So if you want to think about other sales and interpersonal communication pitfalls, consider this list:
1. Lack of reflection skills
2. Lack of communication skills
3. Lack of listening skills
4. Talking at the person, not to the person
5. Lack of questioning skills
6. Lack of knowing when to stop talking, skills
7. Lack of reflection on how we are really coming across
8. Poor email writing skills
9. Lack of follow up
10. Not changing the way you follow up
11. Not asking for closure on a sales question with sarcasm…don’t use sarcasm
12. Not making the calls
13. Not sending follow up emails
14. Not speaking to a decision-maker
15. Slow to action
16. Not getting to know enough about your client’s work and non-work interests
17. Shifting or pointing blame
18. Not apologizing when needed
19. Working too much or not enough
20. Not crafting good disarming statements to get entre into the discussion.
Sarcasm, amongst these listed above are no Bueno when it comes to helping people in communication, sales, or whatever it is you are trying to do. Here is to Moving Forward Together!
Much love and all my best
Comments