A GOOD GENERAL KNOWLEDGE – IS IT IMPORTANT?

G’day there,

”A person who won't read has no advantage over one who can't read.” Mark Twain

With Easter now on us, and with it a great opportunity to maybe sit back for a tad and catch up on rest, the above quotation from the great American author and novelist Mark Twain caught my eye today.

On reading it, I started to ponder over the question “How important is general knowledge?” and quite frankly I think it is self-evident to advancing your career.

No matter which way you wish to encapsulate what selling is all about, bottom line it is simply about being in “the people business” and in order to communicate with them you need to now a little about a lot.

As I stress in our FAA Auction Skills courses for real estate agents, when you go to try and gain a listing it is not the property that is important.

What is important is what is in the house that tells you about the vendor?.

You are there essentially on a job interview and if you cannot relate to the vendor, or more importantly they with you, you are a “shot duck” and you won’t get the listing.

IF HOWEVER you can through looking at what they have around them, e.g. books, photos, CDs etc, find something to communicate with the vendor about apart from the house then you stand a far better chance of getting that listing.

How do you do that or that matter, how does that fit in with whatever goods or services you are selling?

It all starts with reading. Become a voracious reader of anything. Pick up trivia, scan magazines of all types, read the daily paper or if you don’t have time look up the paper’s website and read the headlines.

Therefore this Easter start on this new path and apart from relaxing you will also be adding a very valuable plank into the hull of your sales “ship”.

Have a safe and happy Easter break.

Tony

Tony Fountain (Professional Speaker, Auctioneer and Author)

tony@fountainandco.com

The Rainbow Chaser