I recently learned that one of my clients had to fire its no. 2 sales consultant.
He was really good. But now that I’m reading Plato, I think losing him was inevitable.
A few years earlier, I facilitated a sales meeting for this client. We talked about practicing empathy with customers to demonstrate trustworthiness. It was about emotional intelligence–typical stuff, really. Halfway through, the salesman interrupted me.
He asked a good question. (And to be clear, I’m certain he could sell circles around me.) But the way he asked the question, with exasperation and disdain, was a warning flag:
“What does this have to do with sales!”
Any time you receive pushback in a conversation, it is an opportunity for all parties involved to go deeper. The conflict prevents you from getting away with poorly thought-out assumptions.
I took the opportunity to go deeper, and the meeting was better for it.
As the attendees wrestled, they arrived at some truths: What is trust? Can people buy without it? Sure, but people want to buy from those they trust. And it leads to a relationship, which creates long-term customers–the best kind.
Plus, listening to and acknowledging a customer’s concerns are just the right things to do.
But you could tell the salesman was not convinced. He had trouble applying these abstract truths to practical reality.
It adds up
Plato knew abstract thinking was a challenge. In his Republic, Socrates and friends imagine a republic where philosophers are the kings. Before they are allowed to rule–before they are allowed to become philosophers, in fact–they spend years studying something essentially abstract: math.
Math: arithmetic, geometry, music and astronomy. (Yes, those are all mathematical studies, and if you don’t see it, just go with me on this one for now.) Socrates observes that arithmetic is “essential” because it “forces the mind to rely purely on intellectual processes and to aim for truth in itself.”
Forcing the mind to aim for truth.
If there is one common complaint from my clients, it’s that it is hard to find employees who can think for themselves.
And if there is one common thing clients appreciate about coaching and consulting work, it’s that an outsiders like me gives them a chance to stop and think.
But does it add to the bottom line?
That’s all well and good. But are thinking employees and thinking managers valuable? Does abstract thinking improve the business?
Here is how Plato has Socrates address it:
‘You seem to be naïvely worried about what people will think of you,’ I remarked. ‘You don’t want them to think you’re recommending studies which have no practical benefit. It is, in fact, really hard for people to have confidence in the fact that studying this kind of subject cleans and re-ignites a particular mental organ which everyone has (while other occupations ruin it and blind it), and that this organ is a thousand times more worth preserving than any eye, since it is the only organ which can see truth.
Our minds need cleaned and re-ignited on a regular basis. Without it, we can’t see truth.
What seeing truth at work looks like:
- Knowing what’s really going on with your market.
- Understanding how a process change will impact all aspects of the organization.
- Identifying the core insights from employee feedback.
It would be incomplete to end this discussion without talking about impact:
The Greeks have a long track record. It’s not just that, in many ways, they invented Western civilization. It’s that, throughout the millennia since, cultures have returned to Greek culture to advance their own corners of the world. What they built lasts.
So you could say that clear thinking will probably help sales this quarter. But the impact won’t stop there: What your organization is building can last.
Meanwhile, you’ll have a personal benefit: reaching new insight. There is something hardwired in us to take pleasure in what is good, beautiful and true.