During a recent networking meeting, I overheard someone telling all of his woes to a new aquientance. The account executive went on to say how bad the market has treating him and in fact his firm has already started floating around rumors how it looks that they will need to make several staffing cutbacks. The good news for the account executive is that it does not look as though he will be directly effected by any cuts due to his number of years of service he has already provided his firm.
The bad news is that he has shaken any confidence in the acquientance wanting to work with him now or in the near future. I would even guess that if I were able to overhear this conversation with no effort on my part; he has shaken any confidence that I or anyone else in ear shoot of this conversation for wanting to do business with him as well. To make matters worse, the account executive continued to do more damage by repeating the senerio several additional times during the event. Considering that he was there to build his business and to create connections, my guess is that he did more damage then good. I bet he returned to his office with no new connections and in his mind he was able to justify how bad things really are.
He could be the best salesperson in history. Any creditablity he once had or would have had is now lost.
Now let's look at this situation on a couple of different fronts. He had to pay the same $25 admission fee and had to take time away from the office to attend the meeting. So if he was not in high spirits why spread the wealth of bad news? In the end would he had been better off to skip the event all together and take a walk at a nearby park? Certainly.
People like doing business with positive people who are able to build their strength and not over draw their emotional bank accounts. Who would you rather do business with - someone who makes you feel better about what is going on in his or her life or someone who you would rather avoid.
The Lesson here - if you are not feeling your best due to what is going on in your life don't attempt to gain creditablity by attending public functions where you will end up doing undue harm to yourself or your business. At times give yourself a personal timeout. Gain a positive focus and objective by not spreading bad news. You are always promoting yourself even though you may feel better by airing out your feelings. That in the end will cost you your business or perhaps even your job.
Dave Josephson, The Growth Coach® of Jax serves business owners, small practioners, organizations, sales professionals and those who know that they have what it takes to make a better life for themselves and their families.