The Lakota Sioux in the Dakotas back in the 1800’s used something called a Talking Stick. The Talking Stick was used during tribal councils. The leaders of the tribe and neighboring tribes would meet and discuss important issues affecting them.
To keep order in these meetings they used the Talking Stick. Unless you held the Talking Stick you couldn’t talk. You just had to sit and listen.
Imagine if every sales person had a Talking Stick … and first thing they did was hand it to their prospect. The rep couldn’t say anything. They couldn’t pitch. They couldn’t go on about their company being better than the competition. And they couldn’t talk about they could solve every problem the prospect had – real or imagined. They just had to listen.
They might actually hear what their prospect actually wanted – not what they wanted.
Shhh … listen.
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- Believe it or not … it may not be about you!
- What does customer service mean to you?
gonna send this to my mom
This could be a great concept to introduce to a large group of Type A personalities in meetings. No joke – I’m going to try it and will let you know how it goes.
A talking stick? Imagine that? Great concept! The stick would ask the questions and then the rep would have to listen?
A talking stick so that sales reps would listen? What a concept! JM