McCarron: Is It Better to be Smart or Wise?

Earlier in the year, I wrote about the difference between being nice and being kind. Nice has an expectation of reward - a returned favor. Someone is nice for personal reasons. Usually, they need something.

 

Being kind – often associated with giving something of free will - expects nothing back. It is a state of being. People need help. You help appropriately.

 

We often see people in our industry who are not at their best. Their good day was just ruined by a vehicle problem. Their schedule was suddenly thrown in the garbage and they've been calling audibles all day long. They’re scrambling. We won’t always get customers who are in a great mood when talking to them. Being nice will carry an aura of suspiciousness. Being kind will put them at ease.

 

Similarly, being smart is not the same as being wise. Intelligence is a measurable aspect of the human brain. It is the mental ability to be accurate on facts, if you allow for a simple definition. Someone who has done a job often or long enough is usually pretty smart about how to get the job done. Intelligence is exposure, repetition and a developed cause and effect history of data.

 

Lots of people are smart about oil changes. The dipstick always comes out before you drain the oil. Always look at the filter being removed for the old O-ring. Don’t stand around watching the oil drain - and remember to multi-task!

 

The same can be said for selling or managing. A smart salesperson knows what to say. They’ve had a conversation about brakes 10,000 times. A smart manager knows when a customer is going to be desperate to replace tires - usually, before the first snowfall in the Northeast, where I live - and when a shop will generally be slow – typically, during summer vacation time.

 

A smart manager knows things. A smart technician knows things, too. But what’s wisdom?

To be wise is to know what you should say, but you wait anyway. Wisdom is to know how to fix brakes only one way, the right way, regardless of outside pressure. To be wise is to understand not just what you are doing or saying, but in what environment and to whom. 

Intelligence is understanding the problem at hand. Wisdom is understanding the affected space around that problem. Wisdom not only contemplates the steps to solve a problem, but weighs the solution over other options, choices and includes and encourages others to have input.

 

It's all well and good that a basic brake job takes about an hour. But the customer in front of you with panic in their eyes about how long this will take should never be given the shortest timeframe. Wisdom tests that time limit by introducing other options, like, “If you didn’t have to wait here, would I be able to have the vehicle longer?”

 

By including the emotional state of the decision maker – the customer - in the equation, a smart salesperson who knows how long a brake job takes becomes a trusted advisor who recognizes that any error – parts delivery, broken bolts, rust or an accident - will take an already anxious customer and spin them off into despair if they find out at 3 p.m. they can’t pick up their kid at 4 p.m.

 

Wisdom knows to ask about problems the vehicle is having and what effect that is having on its owner. Wisdom solves mechanical problems and emotional ones by getting out in front of them.

 

Yes, it’s not always possible to get complete stories out of customers. We don’t have all day to play therapist with each one. But you’d be surprised how much information a customer is willing to give up in under a minute if the right couple of questions are asked.

 

If it feels like an interrogation, customers will hide information. They will waste time trying to figure out your motives and the conversation can quickly become about winning. The problem with this is that there has to be a loser to have a winner. If it’s not the salesperson and it’s not the customer, then it’s the technician being asked to perform miracles in a tiny time frame.

 

Wise people get as much of the whole story as they can, just because it makes for a smoother process. Rocks in the road are unearthed early, when they are easier to deal with instead of under pressure. Wisdom listens much more than it talks. It’s fast when fast is good. It’s slow when slow is good. And wisdom knows that problems never exist in a bubble.