“Then Pharaoh sent and called Joseph, and they brought him quickly out of the dungeon; and he shaved, changed his clothing, and came to Pharaoh.” Gen 41:14
When I first read this scripture I taught, he shaved his beard because he wanted to “Package” Himself before the king, but history provides a rather interesting take on the scripture, The Egyptians at the time were struggling with a head lice problem that was why they all had shaved heads.
It’s like taking off your shoes at the door of your client’s house because he or she can’t stand shoes in their house!
By Shaving his head Joseph knew the protocol and language of his assignment. I also believe that Joseph was virtue signalling to Pharaoh that ‘Oga I am like you’
THE POWER OF CONTEXT
To understand customers, people and life we must understand their context. What is context, well according to the dictionary context means “the circumstances that form the setting for an event, statement, or idea, and in terms of which it can be fully understood.”
When we understand the context of a client or person we immediately start seeing them differently. If you see two little children running and shouting at the airport under the watch of their father you’ll most likely think the man is irresponsible, what if you find out that the man just lost his job! Then you’ll suddenly feel empathy for him because the story's context has changed.
Before you judge people as good or bad, successful or failure please try and understand their context. You’ll enrich your experience with a person when you understand their context.
THE JOURNEY OR THE DESTINATION
“To travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive” Robert Louis Stevenson.”
When you see an exceptional performer in sales, sports, or the arts what do you see? If you’re like most people you’ll fixate your attention on the destination, their success without considering for a moment: the minutiae, consistent, and uncelebrated behind the scene hard work that has gone into helping them arrive at the destination.
THE MARGINAL AGGREGATION OF GAIN
The marginal aggregation of gain concept comes from the idea that if you break down a big goal or activity into small parts and you improve on each small part consistently you’ll significantly improve the whole.
To apply this idea in sales do this
Break down your sales activities into parts: calls, content, objection handling
Pick a part you’ll want to improve this week
watch 7 youtube videos, read an article, or listen to a podcast on how to improve that part
apply your learning in your next sales conversation
Get feedback on how you’re doing
Repeat the process
That is the journey that people won’t see, they’ll only see your destination which is the sales you closed. So again in the words of Robert Louis Stevenson “To travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive”
Top musicians spend hours mastering their craft before we celebrate them. DO THE MINUTIAE WORK AND SUCCESS WILL TAKE CARE OF ITSELF
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The perspective of hair lice gave me a paradigm shift as that was never factored into my thoughts all th we years
God bless you for this sir