Daniel wasn’t supposed to say anything. He was the Corporate Attorney in the meeting between Sales and the customer they hoped to get. It was a big customer: the government of a major European country. If they signed a deal, it was going to be hundreds of millions of dollars.
Unfortunately, this customer was particularly in love with the competitor. Their terms were significantly easier, they’d been in the market longer and they had more guarantees for security of sensitive data, a super important consideration in this age of hackers.
Daniel was only there because the prospective customer had initiated a strong dispute about his organization’s licensing terms. The government officials shopping for a new technology system wanted Daniel’s legal team to ease up on their intellectual property requirements and transfer some of their intellectual property over to them, as of course, their competitor was perfectly willing to do.
Daniel‘s only charter in this meeting was to protect their intellectual property. He was there to tell this prospective customer, “No, we can’t do that”.
He could see the team of sales people were not succeeding in engaging the government representatives, who by the way, all had their cameras off for this virtual meeting and showed up as cold black squares on the screen.
The salespeople had their cameras on, but with terrible camera presence because no one had taught them about lighting. They were all sitting in rooms that were too dark, their faces in shadow and at weird angles.
The government officials were more insistent about their concerns, and this made the sales people double down and sell harder. Eventually, the conversation degenerated into a debate.
Daniel was fresh from a Causative Communication workshop and was watching it all go down. What he saw was painful. He could see every mistake being made, but it was his job to stay silent until the discussion about the license dispute made its way to the top of the agenda.
Finally, Daniel couldn’t take it anymore. He thought to himself, “Well, I don’t think I can make it any worse than it already is.”
And so he jumped into the conversation. The sales team was shocked. What did the corporate licensing attorney think he was doing????????
Daniel acknowledged the government officials’ concerns one at a time. He took his time. At first you could see the sales team cringing.
Daniel’s camera presence was absolutely fantastic. He was extremely well lit so he showed up really well. He was looking straight (not up or down) into the camera lens so that, on screen, it looked like he was making direct eye contact with you.
He wasn’t nervous or agitated, he was filled with warmth. He had a calming presence. His eyes were twinkling. He was very engaging. Disarming.
Daniel kept talking and explaining.
And then a miracle happened. The government officials started turning their cameras on one by one, until all of them but one could be seen. It happened spontaneously. They were looking directly into Daniel‘s picture on the screen and you could see they liked him, they were smiling and nodding slightly, clearly engaging with him.
Daniel explained the technology his organization was offering them. He didn’t come across as “selling”. He did come across as quite smart. He explained it really well. He told them why it was good, but in a way that made you want to hear more.
The atmosphere changed as tension drained away. They were listening. For the first time, the government officials were interested and asking good questions.
Daniel led the discussion up to the point where he got an agreement about what they would cover in their next meeting. The amazing thing about it was that it was a big step forward.
When the sales team debriefed with Daniel afterward, they were relieved at the turnaround and said, “Well it’s obvious these government officials like it when they hear it from you.”
So they arranged that in the next meeting, Daniel would have a bigger part of the presentation.
Three meetings later, Daniel was front and center, facilitating the negotiation between both teams. It was friendly, not contentious.
The terms they negotiated, including licensing, were agreeable and everyone was happy.
The sales team was ecstatic.
No one was more surprised by what Daniel had done than Daniel. Daniel was filled with a feeling he’d never felt before. It’s a special kind of exhilaration that comes with real competence. Good athletes know this feeling.
What Daniel said was, “The power of communication surpasses all titles, all restrictions. The power of communication simply surpasses everything. Communication truly gives you the ability to make anything happen. It’s difficult to see this if you don’t have it, but when you do, it becomes the most valuable power you have when you’re dealing with other people. I’m amazed how much I truly am making a difference. It’s a pleasure for me when you see people growing, evolving, in such a short time. I want to do MORE. It’s such a fantastic feeling.”
Who would have thought that the corporate intellectual property attorney would be the sales rock star in a major deal?
We’re not talking about “personality”. It’s not something you “have to be born with” (I don’t know anyone who was). It’s not something “some people have but others don’t”.
It’s competence. If you’re willing to put in the effort, this competence in communication is yours for the taking.
I haven’t yet mentioned how hard Daniel worked to develop his competence, his communication skills. He did the workshop and then signed up for extra one-on-one coaching. The coaching was very rigorous with tremendous practice, practice, practice, which is the only way to build mastery.
When an extraordinary athlete goes out on the field, you see and admire their spectacular ability and competence. You don’t see the long hours of discipline and sweat that went into creating it.
Daniel and great athletes will tell you, there’s joy in the effort. And there’s even more joy in the competence you own afterward. It gives you self-esteem nothing can shake.
And then the surprises that happen in life become the good kind.
Be the cause!