All of our meetings at Serendipity Media incorporate some sort of team-building event, and this year’s sales meeting was no exception. After a day of sales training and collaboration, the entire Serendipity team sat at long, paper-covered tables, with easels in front of us and wine glasses (or beer bottles) in our hands. The goal of the event was to exercise our creative minds and build camaraderie with our teammates. While we have a ton of creative people on staff, I can honestly say most of us are not “artists” as you might think of them.
We were each given the same direction and were provided some creative freedom when it came to colors. But the instructive portion stayed the same. As you could imagine, each of us created a slightly different painting. Why? Some may say it’s because of our different personalities. I say it’s that—and how we hear and interpret things.
When I was doing my painting, I caught myself cutting corners and jumping ahead. I didn’t measure exactly as the teacher said, but rather chose to improvise. I got to thinking about how this translates into sales: Many of us think we are great listeners, but miss important cues our clients are giving us when we jump ahead. It’s easy to express what we think is important to our clients. My painting reflects that: I chose to do what I wanted versus really listening to what was being said.
As we meet with our clients, it’s important to really listen to their needs and provide them with the “painting” they hope for, as seen through their eyes—not ours.
Written by: Kasie Smith is the publisher of West Michigan Woman, and the president of Serendipity Media, LLC.
