I was sitting at a little league baseball game watching a great game until, unexpectedly something happened. It had been a close game between a good team and a struggling team until that losing team fell apart, giving up the maximum number of runs in the last innings to lose the game. I was dumbfounded. How could this happen, it was almost impossible? Then I heard a little voice behind me say, "I knew they'd do this."
I turned around and it was an eleven-year-old ballplayer waiting for this game to end so his team could start their game. I asked him, "How did you know this disaster would take place?"
He said, "Simple. The team that lost didn't believe in themselves. They gave up and the other team sensed it." "Yeah," said a chorus of his teammates as they picked up their gear and headed to the dugout to get ready for their game.
Think about it--if you don't believe in yourself or your company or your product, I bet your customers sense it, I bet your competitors sense it.
Maybe what the eleven-year-old said explains why we make presentations and the customer doesn't buy-in or why some people sell a lot and others fail--all selling the same product and brand.
We have to believe, we have to give it everything we have or our customers will sense we're not committed, that we don't believe. And we can't fake it--our customers and our competitors will know. Just ask any eleven-year-old.
Barry LaBov
LaBov and Beyond
http://www.labov.com/
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