FaithVenture

The Law of the A Few, Part 3

How are you been changed lately?  For me, because of the inspiration of a few of my friends and the changes they are making in their lives – both to get healthy in different ways – I have started Weight Watchers.  My eating habits are far from the best for me, and I know I need to do something now if I am going to have the health-filled future I desire.

Salesmen – Not Your Everyday Car Deal

I don’t know about you, but I hate going to buy something new.  Whether it’s a new car – or should a say, a new-used car – furniture, or appliances, I just don’t like walking in through those front doors or onto the parking lot, because I know as soon as I make that first step, I am going to get swarmed by a salesman who doesn’t care about what I want or need, but only cares about bagging a sale.

You know, the used car salesmen in a plaid leisure suit with a wide tie, white shoes, and a greased back haircut, who tells us everything we want to hears so they can sell us what we don’t want, at a price we can’t afford.  The high pressure personality that gets on our nerves and won’t leave us alone so we can make a decision freely, and without having our arm twisted off.  The salesman we hate negotiating with because its always a game in our attempts to get the best deal, to keep them from ripping us off.

This is not the type of salesman Malcolm Gladwell is speaking of in his book, The Tipping Point – How Little Things Can Make A Big Difference.  Instead, Gladwell describes a salesman as a person who can connect with us in conversation and in emotion such that we are convinced they have our best interest in mind, and thus are able to persuade us.    They are a person who does not push the conversation or force their agenda on us, but listens to what we have to say and how we say it, so as to connect with our conversational rhythm so they can communicate with us in a manner that is comfortable for us.  It’s almost as if they are listening to us so they can create a conversational dance so that the conversation flows comfortably, freely like a good dance.

Gladwell also says a salesman is able to connect with us emotionally through non-verbal cues.  By the way they smile, frown, raise an eyebrow, express emotion through non-verbal movements, they demonstrate that they understand, that they feel what we feel, they are connecting with us, they truly care.  These non-verbal cues are not done to manipulate us, but to create a feeling, a sense of security so that we know this person has our best interest in mind and can be trusted.  Then when a decision needs to be made, we know this person is looking out for us and not for themselves.  They have earned our trust by how they communicate with us, thus earning the right to influence us.

Too often, when it comes to sharing the Gospel, Christians are looked at as a used car salesman instead of as Gladwell’s type of salesmen.  We are about “winning a convert,” “persuading a project,” “influencing an investor,” instead of about connecting with a person so we have earned the right to communicate the Gospel out of authentic relationship and trust.  If we are to create a spiritual epidemic, we must be about selling people on us so we can then “sell” them on Jesus.  They must see that we really care about them; that we are not about forcing our agenda on them; about trying to make them a Christian because reality is, they probably already know we want them to attend our church and turn to our God.  But what matters to them most is they just want to know if we will truly care about them and be their friend.   Will we take the time to get into authentic conversation with them?  Will we demonstrate the signs that we care about what is going on in their life more than about selling our product?  For as
we demonstrate that we care about their needs, concerns, issues, they will then open up to what we have to sell – the life changing grace and forgiveness of God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Go be a salesman who impacts through incarnation – being Jesus in human form.

Pastor Tony J.