Here are 2 stories/jokes that show us all that how we view the world is definitely a biased process. As sellers, we view the buyer’s world according to how we think our product will fit a buyer’s need. As buyers, we view the world according to how to maintain stability and encourage buy-in as we seek excellence in our status quo. Solution purchase? The last thing we need.

It’s all about how we view the world. Viewing the world from another’s perspective and without bias opens up reality. The real question is: do we have the flexibility to truly enter another’s experience?

ONE PERSON’S HEAVEN IS ANOTHER’S HELL

A man dies and finds himself at the Pearly Gates with both St. Peter and the devil. St. Peter says, “You’re not supposed to die for another ten years. We’ll have to send you back.” The man is thrilled, but on his way out he sees one door to Heaven and another to Hell.

He hears a raging party behind the door to Hell and asks the evil standing guard if he can take a peek. The devil says, “Only for a minute.” So he goes through the door to Hell and finds an incredible party, with endless food, champagne, music, and every rock star from history beckoning him to join them. He says, “If this is Hell, I want in.’

When he returns to Earth, he spends the next decade coming every sin he knows, and a few he had to look up on the Internet. Ten years to the day, he dies and meets the devil in front of the door to Hell. As the door opens, he hears no music and sees no party; only brimstone, fire, and the wailing of a thousand damned souls.

He cries, “Wait Where’s the party?’ The devil smiles and xplains, “Oh, ten years ago you were a prospect. Now you’re a customer.”

From Selling to the C-suite : what every executive wants you tc know about successfully selling to the top by Nicholas A.C. Read and Stephen J. Bistritz.

EINSTEIN AND REALITY

When Paul Newman died, they said how great he was but they failed to mention  he considered himself Jewish (born half-Jewish).

When the woman  (Helen Suzman) who helped Nelson Mandela died recently, they said how great  she was, but they failed to mention she was Jewish.

On the other side  of the equation, when Ivan Boesky or Andrew Fastow or Bernie Madoff committed fraud, almost every article mentioned they were Jewish.

However, when Ken Lay, Jeff Skilling, Martha Stewart, Randy  Cunningham, Gov. Edwards, Conrad Black, Senator Keating, Gov Ryan, and Gov  Blagojevich messed up; no one reported what religion or denomination they  were, because they were not Jewish.

This is a reminder of a famous  Einstein quote:

In 1921, Albert Einstein presented a paper on his  then-infant Theory of Relativity at the Sorbonne, the prestigious French  university.

“If I am proved correct,” he said, “the Germans will call me a German, the Swiss will call me a Swiss citizen, and the French will  call me a great scientist.

“If relativity is proved wrong, the French  will call me a Swiss, the Swiss will call me a German, And the Germans will  call me a Jew”.

Are our buyers just another version of our biases?

sd