Selling Malpractice.

Late last summer we began incorporating an exercise into SST^® called, "You are the counselor". Simply, we pair people up to respond to this circumstance: "You are a counselor on a college campus. A faculty acquaintance calls to inform you that she has asked a student to make an appointment with you. It has been arranged for tomorrow at 2. The background is that the new semester has brought with it a sharp change in behavior with the student you will be seeing. Last semester, he made every class, contributed actively and earned a respectable grade. This semester his attendance is spotty, his appearance disheveled and he failed the first hourly exam. How you would prepare for tomorrow's appointment?"

Uniformly, the groups report planning questions to try to pinpoint the problem. Playing the role of counselor, they recognize that problems could reside in one or more arenas. There could be health problems. Or, the student may be having problems at home. Could it be a broken romance or a roommate rift? Another common suggestion is to talk with other professors to see if this represents a pattern or an isolated circumstance.

Notably, no one suggests proposing a solution, or planning a pitch, until the problem has been thoroughly investigated and understood. It would be unthinkable to meet the client and begin by outlining the features, advantages and benefits of a new girlfriend. How would a counselor be received who met this hypothetical appointment by proposing a little Ritalin from the friendly campus health center? Or, how about a good old "shape up kid or you'll flunk out" lecture. These practices would clearly be grounds for counseling malpractice.

Yet, most students will acknowledge that they have conducted their pre-SST selling in an analogous way.

Planning for a call has meant polishing a presentation. Investigations are often truncated and predetermined to uncover a problem your product or service could solve.

The moral is to plan your sales calls just the way you would plan to meet a counseling client. Learn as much as you possibly can before the call. Plan questions to help you and your client pinpoint problem areas. Listen carefully. Then help the client choose a solution communicated in his or her preferred style. Anything else is grounds for malpractice.