Bees – Sharing Where the Honey Is.

I was watching the PBS program NOVA on TV one night. The featured was a program called, "Tales from the Hive". This program chronicles a year in the life of a bee colony with stunning images that take viewers inside the innermost secrets of the hive.

According to Peter Tyson the Online Producer of NOVA, a honeybee hive is far more than just a buzz of activity. In fact, the social organization inside a nest rivals that in the best-run corporations, with each bee and each cell possessing a rigidly specific function. If you're unfamiliar with bees, some of those functions, such as the "waggle dance," might leave you scratching your head in amazement at their sheer sophistication.

This “waggle dance” is a form of communication that gives one bee the opportunity to tell other bees where the best pollen is located. The dance informs other bees in the hive how far away the flowers are and what direction will get these bees to the nectar the quickest. The source bee will even let the other bees sample the nectar of the flowers they pollinated so the other bees will get a taste of it and excite other bees to seek these flowers out. I was fascinated by the level of communication these bees had developed over time.

Like bees the communication between a sales person and a buyer happen with it’s own sort of dance. Like the bees sales people want to spew features and benefits to a potential buyer. They dance around letting the buyer know so much about the “honey” they are selling. The only problem is the buyer is looking for something totally different than what they are selling. It is the sales person’s job to find out what the needs are of the potential buyer. But how?

By asking thoughtful questions. Not any old questions. But questions which will give a deeper understanding of what the potential buyer’s needs, wants and desires really are. I have never been able to figure out how to find out information by talking. Yet, so many sales people do just that. They ramble on about useless information as the buyer walks off. I have only received information by listening and asking additional questions to get information, and to get to the heart of what the buyer is looking for.

Once this dialog happens, like the bees, the exchange of important information can be shared. Like the bees you can share your nectar of information with others. Once the dialog begins you can use your expertise to guide and direct the buyer to your options. This gives value before getting it. Just remember not to sting a buyer with your information before you gather the nectar first.