Sir William Osler
This brief story provides an important lesson. Read carefully . . . the message can improve your sales!
A small bottle sat upon the desk of Sir William Osler, the eminent professor of medicine at Oxford University. Sitting before him was a class full of young, wide-eyed medical students, listening to his lecture on the importance of observing correctly.
To emphasize his point, Sir Osler announced: “This bottle contains a urine sample for analysis. It’s often possible by tasting it to determine the disease from which the patient suffers,” if we observe details.
He then dipped a finger into the fluid and brought it into his mouth. He continued speaking: “Now I am going to pass the bottle around. Each of you please do exactly as I did. Perhaps we can learn the importance of this technique and diagnose the case.”
The bottle made it’s way from row to row, each student gingerly poking his finger in and bravely sampling the contents with a frown.
Dr. Osler then retrieved the bottle and startled his students by saying: “Gentlemen, now you will understand what I mean when I speak about details. Had you been observant, you would have seen that I put my INDEX FINGER in the bottle but my MIDDLE FINGER into my mouth!”
I’m certain those students never forgot that lesson and neither should you!
When your sales efforts seem to be rough and failing, step back and take a careful look. Are you really observing correctly? Are you missing something? Have you misidentified the correct source of your troubles?
Your most important asset in any sales activity is correct observation. All else flows from this source.
Take a look and carefully observe what what has been successful in your past. Drop out the things that aren’t working, put back in the things that were, and get back to a sensible operating basis. You’ll find it much easier to keep things on the right track.
Then train yourself to observe details carefully and correctly in the future in yourself and others so you don’t end up in this mess again!
Observing correctly is a learned and practiced skill. This quote by Sir William Osler says it best:
“Observe, record, tabulate, communicate. Use your five senses. Learn to see, learn to hear, learn to feel, learn to smell, and know that by practice alone you can become expert.“
Now, what are you waiting for?
daniel w. jacobs
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