25. Dale Carnegie – tipster or visionary for your small business?
You can read Dale Carnegie and pick up some useful pointers – you can use them like a series of useful tricks of the trade, such as the appeal to noble motives, or the early question to which they must answer ‘yes’. Indeed, the telesales industry has recognised the efficacy of one of Carnegie’s precepts: it is standard briefing for telesales staff to smile before they start talking to anyone on the phone. And these tricks will probably help you if used sensibly. But this is a very superficial approach to what can be seen as a much more fundamental philosophy.
It is in some ways a very American ‘backwoods/mid-Western’ philosophy that tries to reconcile success with both helping clients/others and being a better person. If the telesales staff smile, this comes across in the way they talk which in turn makes them more interesting and convincing to their target, and encourages them to engage with the telesales person. A simple technique, but that smile tends also to make the telesales person feel better. But when we take this further to the face-to-face meeting it can become much more.
By taking an interest in the potential client we get them engaged with us, but we also subtly change – we are now interested in them. The more we are interested, the more we are able to help them solve their problems – and the more we want to. The more we do that, the more they are likely to buy from us. The more we respect them, the more they tend to respect us; the more we are respected, the better we feel, the more we want to act positively to got more supporting feedback. And so over time in selling your services, you help your client and become a much nicer person in the process! It might be nice if it usually worked like this.
Carnegie would see a situation where, by following the precepts, you can have business success and personal success – win friends and influence people – and improve yourself in many ways. Thus from tricks of the trade to a life-changing experience. It certainly was for him: from failed actor to super-businessman.
At this exalted level Carnegie can have an impact; but if you ever have to implement an appraisal system, then I still know few better guides than Carnegie’s 9 ways to get people to change to manage both the interview and the follow-up. And this may account for why a self-help book written before the Second World War is still selling now.
