We have all met extreme people in our time. Each individual brings their own extreme to the table in a different area, and for good reason. When someone is extreme in their convictions they are typically far away from our stance on the same subject, but they have a true passion for what they believe in. This can refer to religion, strategic plans, sales tactics, or simply a passion about what food they put in their body. And they need an extreme view because most of us will not waver from our positions without a strong incentive to do so. We are creatures of habit and we tend to be stagnant, not buying into new ideas quickly.
I know a man that is the sales person for a finance company and is excellent at his job. He travels the country selling his finance program to stores everywhere and teaching their sales people how to use the product. He has a total belief and a passion for his product which is one reason he is excellent at his job. The other reason is that when he presents to an individual or an entire organization he is ‘extreme’ in his pitch. In his sales pitch he tells people that they need to change their entire sales process in order to incorporate his program. But the magic of this is that when he teaches, he leaves subtle hints on how to incorporate his program in bits and pieces that will be very effective without fully implementing his process. He is pitching his program in its entirety while leaving breadcrumbs on how it can be incorporated without changing an entire sales process. He has to be extreme in his approach in order for the people he’s pitching to meet him 1/2 way and begin to implement his program. If he’s lackluster and only sounds half as convincing, the people he’s pitching are only going to meet him 1/4 of the way to where he wants them.
Many business authorities that have talked about the dangers of allowing organizations to ‘split the difference’ and it’s negative impacts. I agree that it can be detrimental in cases, especially when it is within an organization that is rolling out new ideas or internal program. However, in this instance, splitting the difference in going from NOT using a finance program to trying out a finance program because the sales person was so convincing has helped bring the company over $1,000,000 in financed customers since that extreme presentation. The sales person has to be extreme on one side to get his potential clients to meet him half way and begin to use his program. And the next step in his brilliant process is to incrementally bring them closer to his ‘extreme’ stance as his customers use his finance program more and more. The more they see it’s success at 1/2 way implementation, the closer he can bring them to be 100% implementing his process.
Are people meeting us 1/2 way or even 1/4 of the way to something we believe in? Maybe the answer is to have a more extreme view to get them closer to what we believe. Pick a Direction and be extreme!
