One of my favourite of all films is the Italian Job starring Michael Caine and the 1960’s Mini Cooper. Last week I was watching it for the 32nd time, this time on glorious HD and relishing the final scene when the gold was about to slip away for ever over the cliff as the coach dangled precariously over the edge.
Later that night I logged onto a Michael Caine Italian Job internet forum where the discussion heading was “What would you do now, to rescue the gold?”
People were putting all sorts of ideas up online from emptying the fuel tank to lassoing the gold with a rope. And some pretty good ideas too.
This made me think again on the power of hindsight where we are all very much wiser. Hindsight is remarkable and as sales coaches, is one of our most powerful tools. Never be wary of asking your salesperson coachee to re-visit the sale or the meeting and with the power of hindsight, how would they do it differently.
Just change the way you ask this question otherwise you’ll get very predictable. I have an old remote control device in my case which I bring out and physically rewind my coachee without saying a word, as a different way of introducing the hindsight question.
It always works.
Personally if I were Michael Caine, I would let the gold fall out of the back of the coach, quickly drive away, hiding the evidence of the collision. Then I’d go get the gold later. Do you have any better ideas?
