The Sales Manager, during the course of his presentation in the Sales Conference, placed a black dot in the middle of the large white board. He then asked the group of almost sixty participants “What do they see on the white board”? The entire group with almost unanimity replied “a black dot”. Only one or two said “a black dot and a lot of white space all around it”. This is a fact of life in our day to day living also. We only notice the Black Dot and conveniently ignore enormous, widespread white space. The Manager in one of the subsequent presentations wrote “there was a snake in the grass” and almost every participant missed an extra “the” because our eyes see only what our minds want us to see.

During the objections handling stage there is more often than not a “stated reason” and a “real reason” for not being able to close the deal. The stated reason could be that “the total life cycle cost of your offered plant is higher than that of the competitor’s”. But the real reason could be that the competitor is organising the buyers’ vacations to Europe and America etc.

Under these circumstances, only sheer hard work, patience, persistence and prompt, quality services etc. pay dividends. The ice will melt, one day. The tide will turn. Remember the example of honey bee in holy scripture; how it travels far and wide to extract juice from fruits and flowers and totally abstains from dirt and filth unlike an ordinary bee.

Our holy book in one of its chapters Surah Kahf describes a lengthy conversation between Prophet Moses and a God chosen noble person Khidr. It shows what Moses perceived on three different occasions and what in reality the reality was.

It is vital for a sales person to separate reality from perception and organise his strategy accordingly.