The Sales Archaeologist

I read an interesting article yesterday that was focusing on some of the prevelant business myths that exist in certain industries - namely retail, restaurant and banking and other businesses that counted on foot traffic into their space. The one that really jumped out at me was the "our customers want...." myth. The thing about all myths is that they hinder growth. If Columbus continued to believe in a flat earth then he would never have explored; if Galileo had stopped questioning the paradigms of his day he would have never learned what he did about the universe.

Basically this consultant was pointing out that often he goes into an establishment and he might ask "why do you do that?" and often that is what he hears. However he doesn't take their word for it, he conducts an extensive survey to validate their premise and interestingly what he discovers is quite profound. The majority of customers don't care and many find whatever "it" is to be irritating. Where then did "it" come from? Perhaps one or two vocal clients who know nothing about what is best for the companies business? Perhaps it was the idea of an ineffective manager. Maybe it was a response intended to simply cover another problem.   Whatever - it wasn't what they thought!

As a sales person you might also suffer from head trash that you somehow acquired or that someone gave you. These bad records will haunt you unless you get a grip on them and fix them. If you are a sales person, what are you doing right now that might not be working? If you are a CEO the question is the same - what myths are holding you back?