Have you ever seen the show The Long Island Medium?
Theresa Caputo, the infamous “Long Island Medium,” often shows up unannounced at people’s houses claiming to be able to communicate with the deceased and connect the living with the dead.
Whether you’re a believer or not, Caputo’s goal is to read the minds of long lost relatives and friends, and speak on their behalf to the person sitting across the table.
Are you trying to be a psychic?
Although you’ve probably never compared yourself to Theresa Caputo, I bet you’ve pretended to read minds yourself at one time or another.
As salespeople, we are often unaware that we’re assuming things, reading between the lines, and even “hearing” things that are never really said.
When was the last time you heard, “This all sounds really good. I’m confident you’ll get our business.” and thought YES, I’ve got this one in the bag! In reality, that’s not at all the case. It turns out, the prospect was lying the whole time and went back to his current provider and beat her up to get better pricing.
Sandler Rule #13: No Mind Reading
Rule #13 from David Sandler’s The Sandler Rules: 49 Timeless Selling Principles and How to Apply Them says this: “No mind reading.”
Here’s what that means:
- Don’t assume facts not in the evidence.
- Don’t misread between the lines.
- Ask what the prospect means.
We’re all guilty of it. We get “happy ears” and want to believe what we’re hearing; but in order to remain unemotional, we must follow this rule of no mind reading.
When the prospect or customer says, “We need better delivery times.” we think, I better make this a rush job. When, in reality, she may be getting extremely slow deliveries now and she would be thrilled with your typical delivery time.
The three points above are all very tightly related. Not making assumptions means we’re avoiding “reading between the lines.” And, to make sure this is the case, we need to be asking clarifying questions constantly…
- “When you say, ‘We need better delivery times,’ what does ‘better’ mean to you?”
- “When you say, ‘I’m confident you’ll get our business,’ what does that look like?”
- “And you’re telling me that because…”
There are many ways to ensure there’s no mind reading, and you’ll need to find what works for you.
The key is this: don’t make assumptions and ask more questions!
Leave the mind reading up to The Long Island Medium!
Interested in learning more of the Sandler Rules or how you might benefit from the Sandler Selling System? Give us a call at 330-929-9449 or shoot an email to therubygroup@sandler.com.
Thank you to Matt White for sharing. Matt is the owner of JoltCMS where he helps businesses help their customers.
