Bosca the Bull and Tilly the Cat

By Fred Copestake

We have got a new member of the household – Bosca the bull.

OK, he is not real bull, he is a footstool. However, we have personified him and given him the name Bosca as this is my Spanish family name and he was purchased as a memento of the sale of some land in Valencia.

Tilly is a cat. She is real.

Bosca is now taking pride of place in the living room and it is going to be interesting to see how Tilly reacts. We know how cats are curious and I am equally curious how she will respond to this strange new thing in her space.

It got me thinking about change and how we humans react to it. We know that the initial reaction to change can often be shock or denial. The as people begin to react to the change, they may start to feel concern, anger, resentment, or fear. They may resist the change actively or passively and may feel the need to express their feelings and concerns and vent their anger. In the workplace this can be a dangerous time as it can cause all sorts of issues. As people start to accept change, they will want to test and explore what it means to them. This will be easier if they are helped and supported to do so.

Helping manage this process is where a salesperson (or Customer Success Manager in the sectors that employ that role) can add great value. Part of the sales proposition can be to include assistance planning and preparation for implementation of a new a product or service. The experienced salesperson can help by anticipating the impacts and objections that people may have. They can help the customer to address these early with clear communication and support, and by taking action to minimize and mitigate the problems that people are to likely experience.

Seth Godin says in his book This Is Marketing: You Can’t Be Seen Until You Learn To See “Marketers don’t make average stuff for average people. Marketers make change. And they do this by normalizing new behavior.” It is easy to substitute ‘marketers’ for ‘salespeople’ and ‘make’ for ‘sell’. Selling is about being an agent for chance. A good salesperson will challenge the status quo and drive the idea of doing something different to achieve different results (it is of course a definition of insanity to keep doing the same thing and expecting something different to happen). It should be however not just a case of promising the desired outcome but being involved in delivering it.

Anyway, back to Tilly and Bosca. In this case only one is going to be able to make the shift but I’m sure that she will become comfortable quickly enough. Nothing a few Dreamies won’t help.

Brindis can help you make your customers feel more comfortable with the inevitable change they will have to make… get in touch to discuss how