I Have Changed My Mind

If you haven’t changed your mind about anything significant, you aren’t learning, and you aren’t growing. The more you are open and receptive to having your long-held beliefs challenged, the more you will grow. But that growth requires that you change your mind.

Not Being Prescriptive

I used to believe that it was wrong to be prescriptive when it comes to teaching, training, and coaching a sales force. I believed that it was more important to teach the sales force how to think about their problems and challenges and come up with their one answers.

All of these things are still true, but sometimes you need to give salespeople the answers along with the questions. You don’t always have the time for the steep learning that accompanies selling well.

Everyone Is Ready to Face the Truth

At one time, I believed that if you could show your prospective clients the truth about their problems or challenges that they would be compelled to take action. But this again is only sometimes true.

There are some prospective clients who don’t want to know what their real problem is because knowing would mean that they have to act on that knowledge. These prospects believe that not knowing what their problem is will absolve them of the responsibility for dealing with that problem. You can repel contacts who don’t want to deal with their challenges by being consultative.

People Are Motivated By Money

I changed my mind about people being motivated by money. I believed that the right compensation structure would motivate people and that the opportunity to earn more would cause them to do more. Some people are truly money-motivated. They will do whatever is necessary to earn more money.

But the vast majority of the people you come in contact with only want more money. They aren’t motivated by the potential to earn more. Offering some people more money doesn’t motivate them, nor does it change their behavior. Many of them like certainty and recognition more than money.

Can You Change Your Mind?

I’ve changed my mind on more than a dozen other long-held beliefs and ideas, some too personal or too controversial for this blog.

What if you are wrong about what you believe? What if something you have long believed isn’t true? Will seek out information that feeds your confirmation bias? Or will you open yourself up to ides with which you have disagreed?