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Education

StreetSmarts SM

SHARING WISDOM
SHARING WISDOM

WITH JEFF FORTNEY WITH JEFF FORTNEY

One powerful question, a multitude of sales

By Jeff Fortney My answer, I thought, was something that would make
The Strawhecker Group everything fair. In essence, fairness would be the driv-
ing factor in all things. When she returned our papers,
was conversing with a merchant level salesperson our instructor announced there was only one A and only
(MLS) recently about the state of his sales efforts. one C. She also made notes to explain why we received
After about 10 minutes, I asked what he would do our grades. I didn't receive the A or C; I was in the group
I if he were king of the world. This is a question I that received B's. I'd followed the rules, shared the steps I
ask often. I've referenced it in many prior articles. I find it would take to accomplish my objectives and exceeded the
gains information and helps move sales. Individuals have minimum word count.
responded that they'd make people listen better, create
world peace and everything in-between. Yet her reasoning for the grade had nothing to do with
the structure or the minor grammatical corrections she
The answer I received in the recent conversation sur- made. "This is not possible," she wrote on my paper. "Fair-
prised me. "I can't answer that, because even the king ness is an emotion." These words frustrated me. I rarely
of the world can't make people change," the MLS said. I questioned grades, but this time I did. "How is fairness an
continued the conversation, but the response is one I had emotion?" I asked. "Don't we all understand that fairness
to ponder. I thought of the first time I'd heard the ques- means everyone should receive a fair opportunity?"
tion used. It was in a creative writing class in 11th grade.
Several students (like me) enjoyed writing and wanted to Her response surprised me. "We all understand the defi-
learn the nuances needed to write creatively. nition of fairness, but in truth, fairness is in the eye of
the beholder. Is it fair that someone is more popular? Not
At the time, I was the sports editor of the high school if you aren't the popular one. We can have equality, but
newspaper, which taught me how to approach who, what, not everyone will get what they feel is a fair shake. Think
when, where and why. But it strongly discouraged creativ- about it. You are saying it's not fair you got a B, but every-
ity. This class did the opposite. We were told that those one but two of you got B's. Isn't how you feel emotional?"
who could tell a story would do well. She was right. The assignment's rules included an unspo-
ken truth: the answer would affect everyone and had to
A question with lasting impact consider that.

Early in the term we were assigned a paper that answered Putting it to use
the question of what we'd do if we were king of the world.
The actions had to be things that could be done, even Two decades later, at one of many sales courses my em-
if very hard. The paper also had to provide the steps to ployers required, someone said that no matter what we
make it happen and could not be a generic answer like did, there was always an emotional basis for a decision. In
end all war. We had one week to turn in a minimum of prior courses we'd been taught to eliminate emotion and
400 words. give reasons why, logically, our offering was the solution
they needed. Now someone said we had to address emo-
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