“Don’t Sell Past the Close”

– some anonymous smart person

This isn’t just for salesmen pitching product.  It’s for any executive whose job includes persuading others to do things.

When someone agrees to whatever you’re persuading them to do, stop talking.  Stop giving them more reasons it’s a good idea.  Stop asking them to do it.  They’ve already said yes! What will you gain by talking more?  Probably nothing important.

Meanwhile, there’s a risk you might derail their “yes”.  How? Here are four different ways:

1. you might give them new facts that point them back toward “no”.
2. you might look so eager that they think they can talk you down on price.
3. your lack of realizing that you’ve already made the “sale” may make them doubt your competence and the value of whatever you’re pitching
4. your extra bandwidth demand might just annoy them. I think I’ll stop, now.

Try this today?

The next time someone asks you for a commitment, think about whatever you were about to promise them, and chop 25% off your promise before you actually speak.

If someone asks how long it will take to get something done, and you think it’s going to be 6 hours, tell them 8. If someone asks how much profit you think a new project is going to earn and you think it’s going to be $10k, tell them “$7,500, tops”.

The point isn’t that ADDexecs constantly miss by 25%. The point is that ADDexecs constantly underestimate efforts and overpromise results. We do this for many reasons: an eagerness to please, optimism, a failure to account for all the subtasks it’ll take to get a project done. But whatever the reason, we’ve grown comfortable with calling out the wrong number. This exercise forces us to live with speaking something different out loud. In the process, we discover that the world doesn’t punish us when we “fail” to be overoptimistic. That’s a good discovery.

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Remember the Seinfeld episode when George Costanza realizes that since his life has been such a failure, he might be well-served by doing the exact opposite of whatever his first inclination is? That was a great episode. This blog entry isn’t that great — but then again, it isn’t just something you’re watching on TV

Is this the office of another self-employed ADDex?

Under some shady trees I find Bill’s Cycle Shop but no Bill. A passerby says he has “maybe gone fishing somewhere,” leaving his shop wide open. We really are in the West. No one would leave a shop like this open in Chicago or New York.

Inside I see that Bill is a mechanic of the “photographic mind” school. Everything lying around everywhere. Wrenches, screwdrivers, old parts, old motorcycles, new parts, new motorcycles, sales literature, inner tubes, all scattered so thickly and clutteredly you can’t even see the workbenches under them. I couldn’t work in conditions like this but that’s just because I’m not a photographic-mind mechanic. Bill can probably turn around and put his hand on any tool in this mess without having to think about where it is. I’ve seen mechanics like that. Drive you crazy to watch them, but they get the job done just as well and sometimes faster. Move one tool three inches to the left though, and he’ll have to spend days looking for it.

–”Phaedrus”, in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values by Robert Pirsig (1974).

“Move one tool three inches to the left though, and he’ll have to spend days looking for it.” No kidding. Recent articles suggest that a messy desk is detrimental to your career. I suspect this applies equally to messy garages, if you make a living there.

ADDexec relevance? None in particular beyond the occasional tidbit like this one. That said, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is an amazing and important book that I’d recommend to anyone who thinks about quality in life, and why we sometimes do things well or poorly.

Try this today?

Be early for an appointment:

• 5 minutes early for an appointment in your building
• 15 minutes early for an appointment you have to drive to.

New experiences: a jazz musician discovers that there are two ten o’clocks in a day, and an adult with attention deficit disorder discovers that it is physically possible to be at an appointment before the thing is scheduled to start.

What new things will this ADDexec gain: maybe a moment to collect thoughts and begin a meeting with a quiet mind; the respect of colleagues who appreciate the respect of their own time; a chance to visit to the restroom; the chance to notice something important about a customer’s office or interests? The list goes on.

Do you have a to-do list with items more than one month old?

Try this for today: find one item you know you’re not going to do, or that you at least know you can live without.  And scratch it out.

I bet your mind will thank you.

Back in the 70s I read a book of study tips for college students.  “If you’re having troubled staying on task with an assignment, promise yourself a reward — like going out for a hamburger — as soon as you get your work done.”

How does this technique sound for a modern executive with attention deficit disorder?  On the one hand, if the promise of a little treat helps us get the job done, great!  We get the job done!  On the other hand, if we make a habit of using extrinsic and unrelated rewards (like hamburgers, or a half-hour of television, or a trip to the beach) to get ourselves to complete a task, will we gradually erode our internal ability to stick with tasks for the simple reason that they’re important?

I suspect that the “hamburger” technique (like hamburgers themselves) are fine if used sparingly, but not as a habit.  In any case, if you use this technique, what’s your “hamburger”?

Are you looking for a fast and free online tool to evaluate your possible ADHD? Larry Jasper & Ivan Goldberg have a 24-question evaluation here: “Jasper/Goldberg Adult ADD Questionnaire” at MentalHelp.net.

They include questions like “I find it difficult to read written material unless it is very interesting or very easy.” with 5 possible responses from “Not at all” to “Very much”.

Notes:

Their description: Use this questionnaire to help determine if you need to see a mental health professional for diagnosis and treatment of ADD or ADHD in an adult.

Their disclaimer: Scores on this test are not meant as a diagnosis tool! You should not take this score to represent a mental disorder diagnosis or any type of behavioral healthcare treatment recommendation. Always consult with a trained mental health professional if you are experiencing feelings, thoughts or difficulties that cause you or people you love to be concerned…

Who wants a blowgun and some Ritalin darts?

When I wander off topic during meetings with my colleague Geoff, he puts two fists to his mouth, points them at my neck and goes, “Phoompf!”

It’s good for co-workers to help keep each other out of ADD trouble.  Geoff shoots me with his blowgun.  I interrupt one of our other colleagues when he interrupts one of our clients.  And I ask my own clients, “If I get on a roll and can’t stop talking about something that isn’t useful, please tell me so I can stop.”

Just remember to deliver the “hey, let’s stay on track” message in a way that doesn’t cause more harm than good.  Get agreement in advance that you’re going to do this for each other, so nobody gets surprised or angry.  And do it with tact and maybe a little humor. Phoompf!

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Photo credit: Isaac Councill, blowgun demonstration in Peru. Copyright 2006. Used with permission.

“Work half done is worse than work undone.”

My mother used to tell me this when I was a boy, and I had no idea what she was talking about. But now I do.

So what’s wrong with work half done?

Work half done takes up physical space. Think about the old wooden rowboat you brought into the garage for repainting. You’ve got it on blocks and you’ve sanded it (mostly) clean, but until you finish painting it, you can forget about using your garage (or the boat). So maybe it’s not so bad with office work. But it’s hard to work on one project while the paperwork for a half-complete other project is taking up two-thirds of your desktop.

Work half done takes up mental space. It’s hard to devote your full attention to your current task if your mind is part-occupied with finishing the staff evaluation you started this morning.

Work half done is energy invested without any payoff. We put out effort but get no results (which are presumably what we’re hoping to attain). In addition, we get no attaboys, no emotional satisfaction with “a job well done”, and no resolution on issues or questions we’re trying to resolve. Without results or other payoffs, we’re deficit spending — times two.

Watch out for the incompletes. They’re like purchases left on a credit card with a high interest rate: not good to accumulate by habit.

Executives are smart people. People with ADD have a hard enough time paying attention to things that matter. So what happens when smart people run into things they don’t want to pay attention to?”The brain is an extremely sensitive physical organ, and the psyche is equally sensitive. Megaminds build up complex defense mechanisms to avoid hurt. One such mechanism is selective listening.

“Selective listeners hear only what they want to hear. And what they want to hear is praise. People of all calibers of mental attainment prefer boosts to knocks, of course, and we would all like to hear only pleasant things. Most of us cannot avoid hearing the negatives.

“…[But] certain brilliant minds use their brilliance to create screening mechanisms that fend off criticism altogether, so that the subject truly does not hear it…

“It takes a certain kind of complex and supple intelligence to build and maintain such a screen. For one thing, the individual must be motivated by a high level of narcissism, so high that no negatives at all can be tolerated. Then, the mental equipment must be sophisticated and powerful enough to intercept bad messages before they penetrate the sphere of consciousness.”

Mortimer Feinberg and John Tarrant in Why Smart People Do Dumb Things: Lessons from the New Science of Behavioral Economics
Is there something you need to be hearing that you aren’t?