Written for The Burnside News
I love independent people. People who have the drive and commitment to make things happen are at the top of my admire list.
My mother, for example, is 83 and as independent and feisty as anyone I know. I admire her tough and relentless will and her desire to do it for herself. Lately I've been using all my persuasive skills in an effort to have her consider giving up her apartment and moving to a care facility where others will help her with the physical duties she so effortlessly did just a few years ago.
I also ran into a friend from the Annapolis Valley last week and he was with a friend who was having some trouble with her business. My friend, who I had worked with on his business, was doing everything to convince her to team up with me to help her in her business. He pointed out several areas where he felt she was in need of help. They included the typical business growth issues of targeting better prospects, crafting and asking better questions, qualifying the opportunity better and negotiating. She was convinced she could do all of these things already. My friend pointed out that she had failed to do these things in previous situations, but she felt lessons had been learned and she could handle it. I agreed with her.
I recommended a couple of books and websites she may want to check out, but she didn't write them down. My guess is she will be okay, it just may take her a lot longer to get to her goals and it may be more costly as she continues to go through the trial and error method. The reason I think she'll do all right is just the will, independence and desire that she has. The flip side is she teams up with people who can help her based on the mistakes they made and what they learned along the way.
As for my mother, the negotiations continue. She has longevity in her family so we will have the joy of her feisty attitude for some time to come. The choices are she can live in a facility where she is safe and taken care of with a social environment or continue to live independently and with the consequences of having a fall. I'm sure we'll continue to disagree. Parents these days!
©2012 Sandler Training Inc. (www.atlantic.sandler.com) is an international sales, customer service and management training/consulting firm. For a free copy of Why Salespeople Fail and What to Do about It, call Sandler Training at 902-468-0787 or e-mail salescareers@sandler.com
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