Page 203 - Paulisms: Gold Nuggets for Small Business

It’s in the Words
We have already discussed the power of words in the chapter ‘Be Kind’ and how powerful the word ‘kindly’ can be (see Part 3: Chapter 5). Also referred to in this book is how powerful and more successful it is asking for the sale by the using particular words and phrases that head towards an action or decision (see Part 2: Chapter 2.3.1.). I have already given an example of ‘it’s in the words’ under Systems (see Part 2: Chapter 2) where a simple change of words and asking a question dramatically changed closure rates.
After sending through the second stage of editing of this book, my wife and I were on a trip with Erin Botsford, a good friend of mine, and her travel group of Americans. Erin and I met each other thirty years ago when she went to a trade show in Atlanta in 1989 with her husband, to meet up with her brother Brian McGowan (also mentioned in this book. It was the first time I met Brian McGowan). Erin ran a very successful financial services company in Dallas, Texas, and sold her company around the same time as I did. Erin had written her first book seven years earlier, which was an inspiration for my book.
There was a woman in the group, who, at a social event, I asked what she did for work. I had assumed that most American women work (Curse of Assumption). Erin pointed out to me afterwards that in the USA you just don’t ask those sorts of questions. Erin said that commonly, in a business or social event in the USA, no male will ask her what she did for work. It’s a no no. Erin carried on to say that I should have asked, ‘What do you do with your time?’ I pointed out that it may be a culture thing and that it is OK in New Zealand and Australia to ask these sorts of questions. This was
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