arthurficial’s posterous

Say you grow up in a dusty township at the Southern most tip of Africa.. and you learn things like how to stick a knife into someone's flesh faster than you learn Algebra. Being dressed to the nines in Crockett & Jones shoes, Navada pants and Pringle shirts on weekends is far more important than actually doing well in school. You'd much rather be known for beating up your girlfriend than helping elderly people across the street.

Then you grow up, join the economically active portion of the populace, and despite having been to a school that taught "Business Economics" you still don't know the first thing about money management, budgeting or investing. You start a working class job after school and open a SAVINGS account with a bank that doesn't promote, teach, encourage or even hint at actual SAVING.

Then you hit the Jackpot. Edgars, Truworths, American Swiss, Woolworths and a host of other department stores approves your application for credit and issues you a plethora of personalised charge cards. And naturally you go wild. You fall behind on payments and then start robbing Peter to pay Paul. Before you can finish paying off your debts, you are accepted for tertiary studies and you have to now leave your nice working class job to prepare to join the intelligentsia.

Needless to say, whoever you did not pay then blacklists you with ITC, Experian or all the credit bureaux.. or both. The next 5 years is all uphill because you wanna maintain the "look" people have become accustomed to... and it is.

The 5 years pass, your name is now removed and your record is once again clean. You then finish your studies and get that cubicle with the 10K plus salary at Old Mutual or Shell.. the one you've always dreamt of.. Out of politeness you call up the people you owe money hoping to settle your debts. You are told that they have nothing about you owing money on record and that's the end of it.

After 5 more years elapse, a debt collector calls you and demands that you pay the money you owe Woolies or American Swiss from 10 years ago.

What?? You mean you just messed up my credit record for 5 years as PUNISHMENT for not paying you, then you turn around and you STILL want your money? This after I also made an effort and called YOU hoping to settle. You gotta be kidding me. This new credit act is in serious need of a review. You can't go around having people blacklisted willy nilly and still demand your money.

What's it gonna be? Blacklist me or wait until I have your money. It can't be both. I cannot be punished for not paying and then you still expect payment.. This is crazy.

So Pravin (of the Gordhan persuasion).. boss you need to have a look at this.. You know I can't talk to Trev (of the Manuels) about stuff like this anymore.. he's a comrade yes, but it's outside his ju-ris-dic-tion (whatever that means). 

I have just come to the startling conclusion that nobody really sells anything. If someone claims to be a salesperson he is lying to you and him or herself.

You are actually just an evangelist for a product or service.

So in essence what you do is establish contact, then trust, and then pass on as much information to your prospect as necessary to point her in the direction of YOUR product or service should she ever need to acquire such.

In many instances you as an evangelist go beyond the call of duty and establish an actual relationship with your prospect. Through this relationship building process you attach yourself to whatever goal your prospect is working toward, and influence the achievement of that goal to varying degrees.

What this eventually translates into is a close-knit, mutually gratifying relationship and top of mind awareness about you and the product you evangelise. With the elapsing of the normal buying decision timeline, when your prospect is ready to get what you have.. who else to get it from but the person that first brought the information.. the person they know and trust.. the person they can run to for help when using your product?

And not once did you SELL anything.

Your client BOUGHT.

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