Peter Knight

Tyre Kickers

 

Right now I'm going to buy a car.  I've had my current one for six years, the longest I've gone without changing as a consequence of two things.  Firstly I felt it was inappropriate to get a new car in the recent climate but more significantly I'm no longer a petrol head, if in fact I ever was one.  I've come to realise there is no sport as mind numbing as F1 - I really would rather watch one man and his dog. Current car models do little for me, sure the latest Aston, Lamborghini or Ferrari will still turn my head but my days with exotics are over, I've had my fill, and most other cars on the road seem so similar and bland.  So whilst I know I'm going to buy a car I really have no idea which make and model I'll choose.

 

I've been weighing up the Jaguar but still struggle with the Arthur Daly association, the Mercedes range looks more geared for LA cruising than the autobahn, plus the depreciation rate on the last two I've owned cause me to feel I'm damned if they'll rip me off again. BMW's are no better, once they were so cool in my eye, so perfectly engineered, but now all I see is a huge backside and no offence to J Lo or others with a similar body shape, I've always preferred sleek and elegant. I've thought about the Lexus Hybrid every time I pay the congestion charge but actually I've become a fan of the tube and even if my choice of four wheels is electric I'll still take public transport, and talking of four wheels I've been wondering about a return to the Range Rover, not least given the condition of our roads, but not sure I really need one when 90% of my travelling is alone with just a briefcase. What I would really like is a vintage, my dream being a DB 5 or 6 - (many people don't like the 6 but I could be persuaded to buy it rather than the overhyped/priced 5) - but is this really sensible when I do need to drive long distances, sometimes following a long, tiring, albeit highly satisfying, day on my feet speaking and coaching?

 

So with absolutely no clear direction at all, it will be interesting to see the response I get from car dealers. "So, you don't have a price range, no preference for 2 or 4 door, engine size isn't really a factor nor is brand or type," - I could regard myself as a waste of time too, but the fact is I am in the market, and I will be buying a car.

 

I wonder how many businesses will lose my custom because they choose to ignore me or worse make me feel uncomfortable or stupid?  How often will a salesman lose out on a commission cheque for mistaking my indecision with an inability to proceed? But might there be one person out there though who will see me for the opportunity I am and truly help me with my search, guide me through the options with informed authority, assist me to narrow down my choices and finally, rather than selling, simply help me to buy?

 

I've heard many salespeople describe potential customers as "tyre kickers" and yet these people all live somewhere, all drive cars, all wear clothes, are all consumers - every tyre kicker becomes a customer someday - just not yours if you treat them as a tyre kicker to start with.

Focus on your strengths

A principle of my coaching work is to encourage people to focus on their strengths rather than wasting energy attempting to correct their weaknesses. After all, if you're 30, 40 or 50 something and you've always been poor at one activity it's unlikely you're going to become expert at it now. On the other hand, investing in further improvement of the things you already do brilliantly well, and more importantly, really enjoy, is likely to yield a much larger dividend.

Now, despite knowing this and coaching the principle to many clients over the last decade I found out this week why the theory is so much easier than the practice. We ran an event two weeks ago, "Marketing LIVE" which was attended by 92 people, most of whom completed our feedback forms. Now despite an average score of 9.1 out of 10 for the event I found myself drawn to the two people who scored us 4 and 5 respectively. I've been agonising over these scores, wondering how we went wrong, trying to see how we could have done better and in the end it took a colleague to remind me of my own words to cause this unhelpful fixation to cease.

Why are we so drawn to the negative? What is it about human nature that we spend more time focusing on our failures than on our successes?

I think the problem starts at school where our reports (well mine anyway) cause parents to focus on the D,E & F grades rather than on the A's & B's. When my Maths teacher wrote "his ignorance of the subject is almost complete" and my art teacher wrote "whilst he will always struggle at this subject it is unfair to describe him as completely hopeless" (both comments made when I was 8 years old) I'm sure they thought this might somehow cause me to focus more or to work harder but actually it had the reverse effect. Similarly when performance reviews are carried out at work how much time is spent praising accomplishments compared to discussing "issues"?

I truly believe that "catching people doing things right" is the most direct route to improved performance, and anyway, it's so much more fun for all concerned.