In five minutes, Jill Konrath reveals how she reframes a problem and turns it into a challenge which has made a huge difference in her life. This is an outtake from her interview on SLMA where she talks about the five most important things she has learned in business and life:
The Most Important Things Jill Konrath Has Learned in Business and Life
"One of the things that I found that really made a difference to me early on was whenever I faced a problem, to not call it a problem. Isn't that funny? I do a lot of reframing. I just reframe failure into valuable learning experiences, and now the only thing I do is I reframe problems. I turn problems into challenges, and it's a fascinating exercise to do, but if your body perceives something as a problem, for example, being in sales and your boss comes to you and says, 'Jill, you're having a terrible month. What are you going to do about it?' It's like a big huge weight that you're carrying around. You've got a real problem there with your prospect.
"When that happens, the body gets under stress and there's literally some neuroscience behind it, the body releases cortisol stress hormones, and when a stress hormone is released in the body, it literally shuts down creative thinking and your ability to come up with better solutions.
"I discovered that when I had problems, I really felt the weight of the problem, and I was not able to tackle it as well as I wanted to. When I turned it into a challenge, it was like the sparks in my brain started flying again. And again, research shows that your brain loves challenges. And I didn't know that when I first started doing it, but it became real apparent to me that when I said, hmm, this is interesting. How can I tackle this? You could look at that as a problem, but it could be a challenge, and if you look at it that way, how are you going to solve it?
"Challenges are an invitation, literally your brain, if it's fed a challenge, and it says, Jill, how are you going to get into that big account? It's not that you've got a problem because you haven't got in so far. It's like you got a challenge. How are you going to get in there? And it opens up all these neuro pathways and your brain starts looking at things that it's done before and starts looking at that, and you overhear conversations or you might get an email newsletter that comes in your inbox and it's got such the answer you're looking for. But once you alert the brain that I've got a challenge here I'm trying to solve, it changes everything."
The full interview contains:
- Reframing Problems: how to do it and why it is important
- Problems are really just challenges which is another form of reframing
- Why focusing on the customers changed her life
- How being a master of technology is no longer an option
- And why Silence is Complicity and is a meaningful message for today
Jill Konrath is a frequent speaker at sales conferences and kick-off meetings. Sharing her fresh sales strategies, she helps salespeople to speed up new customer acquisition and win bigger contracts. Her clients include IBM, GE, Microsoft, Wells Fargo, Staples and numerous mid-market firms.
Jill is the author of three bestselling, award-winning books. Her newest book, Agile Selling shows salespeople how to succeed in a constantly changing sales world. SNAP Selling focuses on what it takes to win sales with today’s crazy-busy buyers. And Selling to Big Companies provides step-by-step guidance on setting up meetings with corporate decision makers.
To learn more about Jill, you can read about her professional background, personal insights and sales philosophy. Check her out on Wikipedia, and don't forget to connect with her on LinkedIn!
Jim Obermayer is the founder of the Sales Lead Management Association.
