Southwestern Sales Talk

I ran across an article which intrigued me.  It is excerpted from a book called Is There Life before Death? by NLP master practitioner and author, Steve Andreas.  Think about your sales and how you see yourself as a salesperson; think about how the language you choose to describe yourself and what you do is important.

 
Often people don’t pay much attention to the words they use to describe themselves, and the consequences and ramifications of using these words. For instance, people who have had horrible experiences–particularly in early childhood–often describe themselves as “scarred for life.”

In the first place, they are engaged in fortune-telling without being qualified:  No one can predict the future that well.  Some people continue to suffer from traumatic experiences into their later years, but many others don’t.  Secondly, they don’t examine the meanings of the words they use. Most people go “Oh, ‘scarred for life,’ Yes, terrible!” without thinking about what the words actually mean. I have quite a few scars, and none of them bother me a bit. Scar tissue is often considerably tougher than the original. Only a few scars continue to produce discomfort, and even then the discomfort is more often due to damage that never fully healed, than to the scar tissue itself. Scarring is actually a sign that the body healed itself and made itself whole again.

Even the meaning of obvious scars depends on how they are viewed. Early in this century in Germany, a visible dueling scar was considered a badge of honor. When I was in high school in New Mexico in the 1950′s, many students flaunted their knife scars as a sign of bravery. Some African tribes deliberately create elaborate decorations on their skins by scarring. I have even met quite a few women with scars that made their faces much more interesting than they would have been without them.  So what does “scarred for life” really mean?–only what you choose it to mean.

 

So what words do you use to describe your week?  Here’s what I’ve heard at Southwestern Sunday meetings:

“It’s horrible.” 
“I’m dying out here.” 
“I’m got slaughtered this week!”

Are these descriptors really that accurate? 

One sharp, bubbly Student Manager I met with even had her own nickname: DRAMA.  She got this moniker because she said she took little things and made them complicated and complex.  She overthought and consequently everything became a big deal!  Second-guessing herself felt natural–her life was “always a drama”! 

Cute and memorable?  Yes.  Helpful?  No.

The metaphors and images–even our nicknames–have a way of steering our thinking and our lives. It’s wise to be cautious about the ones we use, and it’s wise to examine them to see if they are taking us where we really want to go.

What words, thoughts and comments does this invoke?  How do you label your experiences?  Let me know.

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