I recently learned a lesson while shopping. My original goal was to purchase something in the $100 range. It doesn't matter what I was purchasing; I've left that out to keep the story more appealing to more of you. If I cloud the issue with what the item was it might not resonate with you.  I had done my homework...or so I thought. For what I thought I wanted, I knew that $100 was a good price. But I walked out with something much, much more expensive and thrilled with my purchase. Why? One word - Expertise. The salesperson had it. He didn't "sell" me things I didn't need or want. He just did a great job of uncovering what I didn't know about this particular product. The salesperson purged all my fears and I felt great about spending the extra money. Frankly, I didn't know what I didn't know and his patience and knowledge in sharing it made the difference.

I found this particularly interesting because we are in the software business which requires us to be experts and therefore gain the respect of our prospects. But really, the lesson I got went much further than that. The lesson is that it's our duty to be "know it alls." And not the kind that movie and TV characters are fashioned after or the kind our parents warned us not to be. I'm talking about the kind of "know it all" that someone discovers and they are glad they did. The kind of "know it all" that doesn't just think they know it all; they really know a lot about their product or service. The kind of "know it all" that continues to learn and learn and learn. The kind that develops credentials and accreditations that matter. The kind of "know it all" that listens and asks questions so they can know more. The kind of "know it all" that recognizes their own expertise and knows just how to use it to assist others.

The perfect "know it all" is a resource, a trusted advisor, someone you like being around because you learn from them. You're smart enough to know that knowledge is power and so you use lots of resources as you make decisions about your purchases and goodness knows there are a lot of choices out there. So how nice is it when you find someone who can really walk you through all you need to know? In my recent experience...pretty sweet!

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