Dr. Suess suggested that, “Sometimes the questions are complicated at the answers are simple.” I think he may have been on to something. At least, that’s how it seemed last Thursday.
You see, Thursday is the day Eric, my “first-call” sales representative and, after all these many years, my friend, stops by to take our stock order and visit for a while — not necessarily in that order.
Truth be told, there are times the visiting gets in the way of the ordering, and other times when the ordering makes the visiting almost impossible. Nevertheless, we’ve managed to build a strong and fairly resilient relationship over a good chuck of the past 25 years. That’s why I may have been caught off guard when, as he was leaving, he stopped, turned and almost in passing asked, “Everything is OK, isn’t it? I mean, if it wasn’t, you would tell me, right?”
On the surface, that seems like a fairly simple and straightforward question — a basic “How are we doing?” kind of question that would, or should, require an equally simple straightforward answer, such as, “fine,” “great,” maybe even “terrific.”
But how many “simple” questions have you had to confront lately, especially in this economy?
I thought about it for a moment and realized questions like these just don’t fall from the sky. There had to be a reason, something driving a question like that, something forcing it to the surface, something calling out for answer. So, I took a deep breath and entered the circle that inquiry created and parried with a not-so-simple question of my own. “Why do you ask?”
What followed was a conversation rare in both its essential clarity and inherent honesty — a candid and open dialogue between a member of your industry and a member of mine that just doesn’t happen all that often. Not because we consciously avoid opportunities like these, but because we fail to recognize the precious insight that might flow out of such discussions. And, in that failure, we allow these important opportunities to slip away. We are reluctant to ask the questions and even more reluctant to wait for the answers, for fear they might prove uncomfortable!
This was one of those strange opportunities where the question was asked, acknowledged and answered.
As it turns out, the question was being driven by a slight dip in volume at their end of the pipeline. The obvious answer was that their slight dip in volume was being driven by the slight dip in volume we were experiencing at our end of the pipeline.
That was the obvious answer. But, was it the only answer? More to the point — was this the question he was really asking?
What I heard was, “How are we treating you? Is everything OK? Is there someone else in the picture — a new force in the marketplace to contend with — that I should know about? Are our deliveries on time? How are we doing on the Counter? Are our drivers blocking your driveway when they stop to deliver their parts? Do we have what you need, when you need it and at a price you are willing to pay?”
These are all questions I’m pretty comfortable with because they are all questions we are prone to ask our clients openly, honestly and often.
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And, after sharing all of that with him, I realized that what I had heard was, in fact, what I was being asked. The answers were all good, a straight “A” report card, at least for this semester! My guess is the answers will be the same for the next semester as well. Why? Because someone asked. Because someone was interested in finding out. And, because someone was obviously interested and willing to act if there was a “needs improvement” scribbled somewhere on the report card.
When was the last time you asked one of your customers a not-so-simple question in passing? When was the last time you waited for what might have been a not-so-simple, yet critically important, answer?
