Why we need to know

I had to hold my ears and scream “blah, blah, blah, blah” while my friend talked about the disappointing ending of a movie she just saw this weekend. I hadn’t seen the movie yet so I didn’t want to hear about it. I don’t like to walk in late to movies either, I rather just miss the whole thing.

Last week I was invited to Jack’s baby shower. No, Jack isn’t born yet- he is due December 14th (scheduled C-section) but Jack had all his future aunts, uncles, cousins and friends at his baby shower who determined his favorite color, his taste in clothes, toys, music and books. His mommy and daddy had his name printed on the walls of his room and gave out “Jack” buttons to everyone.

Why do we have this enormous need to know? Why do we give someone else the power to tell us what our destiny will be? The need to know is so important for many of us who need to organize our lives based on answers and expectations.

Our bleak economy has everyone paying attention- we want to know the ending of the financial turbulence we are all experiencing. Perhaps if we figure out when it started, we can calculate or predict when it might end. We want to know what we can expect to gain, lose and of course how much worst will it get before it gets better?

There are very few surprises in the sales world. It’s your job to qualify and reconfirm along the way. If you are blind-sided or surprised, it’s because you missed a step along the way. You should not be surprised by any objections you hear.  That’s why closing sales is one of the toughest things to write about because it’s not this big event that happens. If done correctly, it is a matter of effectively moving something along the sales cycle until it closes.

This is the most important month of the year in terms of securing new business- there are no secrets, no surprises and no one telling you something you should already know about.