“Will Never Be Played Again”
To create a relationship-building encounter, your customer must feel that the interaction he shares with you is fresh, unscripted, one-of-a-kind. He has the sense that this moment has never happened before, and will never happen again.
This is difficult for many people. Our works forces us to retell the same stories and deliver the same information time and again, and we often slip into recitation mode, sounding like the 2nd grader dutifully delivering her lines at the Thanksgiving assembly.
I downloaded The Great Gatsby to my Kindle yesterday, just because I was in the mood for the music of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s sentences; those in this book are poetic, symphonic and beautiful. Narrator Nick Carraway describes the “low thrilling voice” of his cousin Daisy Buchanan in this way:
“It was the kind of voice that the ear follows up and down, as if each speech is an arrangement of notes that will never be played again.“
Wow. Try that! Tomorrow, as you interact with customers or colleagues, make your voice and its words so fresh sounding that the listener’s ear “follows up and down,” creating the feeling that this is the only time in history you will say this, and that this is the only person to whom you will ever say it.
Read
I liked your reference to poetic expression. Me, I’m a sucker for movie references and I’d draw your attention to one of my favourite films – ‘Sideways’. There’s a wonderful scene with Paul Giamatti and Virginia Madsen where they talk about wine, a subject that draws them together. It’s a private moment between them and they express their passion for wine so beautifully, a lesson in engaged listening and the kind of ‘Otaku’ that Seth Godin would be proud of. Through words and body language both protagonists effectively declare their love for each other. It’s great to discover a common point of interest with another person, but if you can express your shared passion as wonderfully as these two, you’ll experience a’eureka’ moment of connection.
You left out the clincher about Daisy’s way of talking — Her voice was full of money!
Steve wrote: “To create a relationship-building encounter, your customer must feel that the interaction he shares with you is fresh, unscripted, one-of-a-kind. He has the sense that this moment has never happened before, and will never happen again.”
If everyone shared this mantra, we would see the major changes we seek to see.
yar,
bonnieL
triiibe on!
“The test of true intelligence is the ability to hold two opposing thoughts in mind at the same time and retain the ability to function.” — F. Scott Fitzgerald. One of my favorite quotes. A good example of the poetry and poignancy of his words, and also a very apt description of the kind of thinking ability it takes to explore the issues facing organizations and businesses — especially in these rapidly changing times.