Natural limits and…Difficult types…

Natural limits and…Living with them

If we consider the wide array of market skills we could master, it can get intimidating. The reality is that for most of us we’re probably masters of two or maybe three big areas – and that’s totally sufficient for our sucess. But being really accomplished in more those two or three at any one point in time is probably beyond most of us.

Sure we might be quite the expert in all things in the dishroom and pretty darn good in on-premise laundries. But chances are there are other areas like electrical troubleshooting or even floor care where we might have to study up a bit to handle that occasional stumper.

As it turns out most of us humans are more or less “bandwidth” limited. So we find that becoming really good at some complex new skill often comes at the price of losing a bit of our expertise in another area that we’d mastered earlier. Of course we can supplant those diminished skills with a bit of remedial study and even Google some of the more technical stuff as needed.

So, take heart if you suddenly realize that the encyclopedic knowledge you once had concerning the inner chemical workings of a water softeners’ operation, the function of a relay, or a door switch’s wiring circuitry isn’t as clear as it was. It’s not old age or early onset dementia. It’s just natural and very human.

 

Difficult types…And adapting

Some days it may seem that dealing with difficult personalities is all we do. But in reality, if we’re honest we know that it only feels that way. That’s probably because we don’t dwell on the non-difficult types because they don’t require any special handling. But whether or not there are a few or lots of them, they can seem like more.

And while difficult customers can come on a really wide range of personalities, fortunately they tend to fall into just a few categories that includes fear/timidity, indecisiveness, harshness and superiority. Successfully dealing with all of those and more require adaption versus resistance.

Push a timid buyer to act now and you’ll make it a lot worse. Try to force that indecisive operator to decide and it’ll trigger even more indecisiveness. Push back on that harsh or aggressive buyer and you’ll probably be shown the door. And try to win a mental contest with that superior know-it-all buyer and all you’ll get is more of the same as well as his resentment.

Next up: Personalities by the numbers.