Sales Rx: Sales Horse Sense

• By Tray Dunaway
• Jul 01, 2007

I live in the heart of horse country in Camden, S.C. While my personal horse experiences have been limited to exploratory surgeries on unseated riders, I’ve met many individuals in our local horse industry. Of all the horse people I’ve met, Bruce Anderson is one of the most unique.

Bruce is a “horse whisperer,” although he prefers to call himself a “horse helper.” He also has built a remarkable business by understanding how a “horse as a mirror” can profoundly help individuals and executive teams.

Taking up Bruce’s longstanding offer to experience the ring, I found myself alone with a 1,200-pound, untethered, volatile (did I mention scary?) horse in a 60-foot-diameter enclosure. Marley is a magnificent Arabian stallion and was my mirror. My assigned goal was to get the horse to sequentially move with specific direction, then rhythm and finally adding a path.

Once I was in the ring, Bruce mentioned two small points: I couldn’t touch the horse, nor could I rope it (as if that was even a remote possibility). I was given chinks — what real cowboys wear, not chaps — and a lariat. The four hours in that ring afforded me rare insight to my own beliefs and behavior, even about sales.

By the nature of the word, when you “close” a sale, the distance between the seller and the buyer is “closed.” A sale involves “pursuing” potential buyers. We “jump on” leads. But which is the most successful long-term business relationship? Approaching the buyer or having the buyer approach you? How do you get a buyer to approach you? Similarly, how could I get a 1,200-pound horse to approach me?

Placing a prey animal with a predator in a small enclosure creates a dynamic reality. When predator moves toward prey, the prey naturally moves away. Who are the prey and predator in a sales encounter? How can you get a prey animal to unnaturally move toward a predator?

Moving forward aggressively to close causes the prey (buyer) to move away, or worse, run headlong at you. Simply moving away from Marley did not result in his approaching me, only relief. I remained a threat, albeit somewhat less of one.  

Slapping the coiled lariat sharply against my leg, protected by the leather chinks, created an adverse noise (translate as “pressure”). Marley shied from the noise. By positioning myself behind or in front of Marley’s shoulder, I obliquely pressured him right or left against the wall created. He continued to change direction with each slap.

Without approaching Marley, I changed my direction to alternatively pressure left and right, increasing the intensity of the lariat slaps on my own leg, not touching or harming Marley. Marley couldn’t move farther away because of the ring, only to the right or left, but either direction met with the slap until the only other direction, toward the predator, could be taken.

This movement was rewarded by instantly stopping the adverse slap — no continued pressure — and Marley walked directly toward me. I was instructed to turn my back to Marley and walk in a figure eight pattern. Remarkably, Marley followed me at my shoulder. Because we, predator and prey, had learned to trust each other.

The most difficult task for me to learn was to apply pressure and not move toward Marley. I didn’t teach Marley anything. Instead, he taught me how to be. When the prey taught the predator as a reflecting mirror, my actions became less frantic — as did his. Confidence and competence increased exponentially.

When approaching a potential buyer (prey), a salesman (predator) moves in for the close. But if so inclined, an excessively and directly pressured 1,200-pound horse could easily trample a salesman to death. When selling to or through a physician, could a spooked doctor trample your ultimate hope of a sale?

Apply sales pressure obliquely by letting a physician know what might happen to patients or him/herself without your solution to the problem. Apply continual pressure, all the while giving the physician space to move toward you. Learn how to be from your physician. When the desired movement occurs, stop applying pressure instantly, allowing the physician to follow where now, in mutual trust, you lead.

This article originally appeared in the Respiratory Management July/Aug 2007 issue of HME Business.