What don’t you know?

It is easy to forget that people don’t know the things that they don’t know. It can be very frustrating. I don’t know about you but I am definitely guilty of falling into that trap. I like to think I am good at not showing it, although I’m sure I’m not as good as I think I am.

I’m certain there are times that I’ve come across like a smug know-it-all in the past. There will doubtless be more times like that in the future as well. What I want to do is ensure I approach those times with a sense of empathy for the other person.

It is something that I have been thinking about a lot recently as I balanced home learning with my 6 and 10-year-olds, alongside working from home. Every other week it was just me and them in the house and I found the interruptions frustrating. I’m a little ashamed to say that at times I found myself getting annoyed at them.

As with a lot of things in life, a little distance brings perspective. With the kids being back at school this week I have been able to think back on those interactions, especially those with my little boy. He just wanted to let me know the stuff he had learnt. He was excited to know it and share that knowledge, and I actually love that. 

I love sitting down with him and reading a book together, often non-fiction because he loves learning new facts and figures. It was only this week that I realised we hadn’t been doing that together for the last few months. The joy he gets from learning fills me with positivity and, a lot of the time, I learn things too.

My frustration came from not being able to focus as easily on those days which is all on me. It is definitely unfair to lay that at my son or daughter’s feet. When they came to me to share a maths problem they had figured out or an English structure they had identified, I should have been better at seeing that from their point of view, even if I already knew how to do it.

We all learn from those interactions. For example, I never knew that the long division method I learnt at school had the name “bus stop” method. And, although I knew how to use them, I had no idea what split digraphs were until my daughter learnt them in school.

It got me thinking about how this applies to my professional sales life too. As a salesperson, it can be very frustrating when people are considering what they want to do. The issue arises from the same place, people don’t know what they don’t know. 

I truly believe that the majority of salespeople come to their discussions with clients from a place of service. It isn’t the same cutthroat profession that it used to be where the aim was to get a deal at any cost. Whether it was right for the customer or not. I think that what you get now are salespeople who feel pushy because they have analysed the problems the customer is facing and know their product or service so well that they can see the benefit it will bring. The problem is that the customer may not have enough information to see that. They might not even have purchased anything like this before.

What we need to do as salespeople is take a different perspective. Step into the customers’ shoes and see it from their point of view. What don’t they know that you do which you can help them understand and communicate with all the parties involved? Be the guide in their learning journey, not the hero, and help them understand more.

If there is something that you can take from this, I’d like it to be this. Be more empathetic, in everything you do. Anytime you feel frustration rising up with someone else, find some distance from it, take a step into their shoes, and try to see things from their point of view. 

I promise you will feel better by doing it.