The meeting was scheduled for 30 minutes. Nobody said we had to use all of them.
I have a strange habit.
When I figure out what’s going on quickly, I sometimes assume I must have missed something.
So I keep talking.
This is especially tempting in a sales conversation.
Someone has given you half an hour.
You ask a few questions.
They tell you what’s happening.
You see it.
You say it back to them.
They say, “Yes. That’s exactly it.”
And there are still 22 minutes left on the calendar.
Well.
This is awkward.
Apparently we’re supposed to do something with those.
So we ask another question.
Then another.
We tell a story (note: Yom Kippur is behind us and I’m STILL atoning for all the stories I’ve shared on these calls!).
We find a slightly different way to describe the thing we already understand.
Maybe we give away a little strategy. Oops!
Maybe we explain our process.
Anything to avoid the horrifying possibility that the meeting might simply be…
short.
I paid the price for doing this.
Enough times that I think I finally understand the mistake.
Recognizing the problem quickly doesn’t mean the conversation is finished.
It means diagnosis is finished.
Those are different things.
Once somebody recognizes the thing you see, there’s another question worth exploring:
Where is this already having consequences?
After all, “Consequence is what really matters.”
If the founder and the company have evolved but nobody has decided what each should carry, what happens to the new website?
What happens to the rebrand?
What happens to the content everybody keeps producing?
What happens when they hire someone to lead marketing?
What happens when the founder starts speaking more?
What happens when they expand into another market?
You’re not looking for additional evidence that you were right.
You’re finding out how far the thing you found reaches.
That matters.
Because sometimes the problem somebody walks into the conversation with isn’t the problem they need to solve.
It’s where the problem became visible.
The website. The book. The sales problem is where they noticed it. The LinkedIn profile is where they noticed it. The new market is where they noticed it.
Fixing the place where the problem appeared without understanding what created it is a wonderful way to spend money twice.
So I’m trying something different.
When I see it, I say it.
When they see it too, I stop trying to prove it.
Then we trace it.
Where else is this showing up?
What does it affect?
What happens to the things you’re already investing in if this stays unresolved?
And if the answer reveals work I can do, I tell them.
No ceremonial lap around the calendar.
No complimentary consulting session because we have 17 minutes remaining.
No pretending I need three more meetings to discover something we both already know.
Maybe we need the rest of the time.
Maybe we don’t.
Calendars are scheduling devices.
They are not minimum sentencing guidelines.
SELLING THE TRUTH
Once the problem is clear, stop proving you found it.
Find out how far it reaches.
Then decide whether there’s work to do.
TIP OF THE DAY
The next time someone says, “Yes, that’s exactly it,” resist the urge to explain it again.
Ask:
“Where else is this showing up?”
Then listen.
If you’ve found the symptom but suspect there’s something underneath it, that’s a conversation I’m always interested in.