This is not going to be your average blog.
What is going to be different about it you may think?
Because I am going to go a bit woo-woo on you.
You know. Tye dye t-shirts, hugging trees, you get the picture.
I lie.
I am not going to start asking you to camp in the tree in your local area which is being cut down but I am going to explain why you need to dig a bit into who you are if you want to solve a key sales problem.
In last week’s blog I talked about the skill in sales of being able to probe beneath the surface — the ability to dig under the skin of what people really think when you have conversations with them.
Having that Intuition to know when someone is saying something to you that just doesn’t feel right.
I did a workshop with a great team this week and we talked about the 3 types of yeses and how you can look out for the differences between a counterfeit and a confirmation yes. If this has you intrigued then you will enjoy next Saturday’s email but the essence of being able to spot ‘when something isn’t right’ is our intuition.
The crossword whizzes will be all over this.
7 Across. 9 Letters – The ability to understand something instinctively, without the need for conscious reasoning.
The word is Intuition.
Being able to have the skill to know when something just doesn’t feel right or as it should be is one that we should all want to develop.
Not only can it help us get deeper inside the minds of our buyers, but it can help in so many other ways.
The friend that says they are ok but you just know from your connection with them that something’s awry and they need someone to talk with.
Or the feeling when you go somewhere and just sense an unease which could lead to problems later.
That ability to understand a situation instinctively is key but how can you develop intuition if you don’t have any?
So here is where we go a bit woo woo…
Here are my 5 top ways to develop your own sense of intuition.
Make 1-2 key decisions a day.
It doesn’t matter what the decision is but make a commitment to doing something and then keep it. Test out what you thought was the right way forward. The best way to develop intuition is to take action and assess whether the decision you have made is right or not. Link this point to number 2 and then take time to reflect weekly on whether the decision you made achieved the outcome you wanted.
Journal your thoughts.
Spend time being mindful of the decisions you made and the outcome of these. Write down why you made that decision. What brought you to that position and what made you choose the path you did? What feelings did you have before you made the choice you did and how did those change afterwards? Review your journal and look back at where you made a decision that didn’t turn out in the way you wanted. What aspects of those thoughts you had before you made the decision can you learn from?
Take time away from life and technology.
Our phones are always with us but it’s impossible to develop intuition when our faces are always stuck in a screen. Get out, go for a walk, and look around you. What are you seeing? What don’t you see? What feels good? What feels strange? What makes you feel uneasy? What makes you feel grateful? Intuition comes from having a real sense of our own feelings and understanding who we are and what we do. The best way to build this is to put phones in our pockets and to let our eyes see what’s going on around us.
Become more aware of your surroundings.
I always like to sit in rooms or restaurants where I am able to see people around me. I don’t want to face inward, I like to face outwards and see who is in my peripheral vision and what they are doing. I don’t stare or make it obvious but I make a conscious decision to try and make a note of what is happening. It’s amazing how when you start to become more aware, your instinct trains you to look for potential situations and how to overcome them.
The final one is you take time to breathe, think and dream.
We can’t expand our minds and ability to do things unconsciously if we don’t give our minds time to play. It’s bothered every day with our lives and actions so how can it help us do things more instinctively if we don’t let it have time on its own to just do its thing? Take some time each day to breathe. I have in the last few years been a follower of Gary Brecka and not only does breathing consciously improve our health, but it also allows our minds to play. New ideas and thoughts flow more when we just sit for a few minutes and do nothing.
Just a few simple ideas to help you develop a skill which is such a powerful one to have in your day to day business locker.
When you can start to sense something isnt right or that someone isn’t really happy then it will allow you to probe beneath the surface and find the gold.
We still then have to know how to handle certain reactions though. Like the different types of yeses we get back from people and what they mean.
See you next week for that.
Stay positive and focus on becoming a fly on the wall in the brain of your buyer.
