In this series, we will study transformation Paul describes in the book of Colossians, chapter 3. I believe these words contain the model for transformation in our careers and our lives.
Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.
He answered, “’Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’ and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”
The Difference Between Knowing and Doing
I have worked as a sales coaching training developer for more than 20 years. I’ve talked to thousands of salespeople in a group setting and one-on-one. Typically the salespeople that I work with have previously sold something professionally. This means that they’ve gone through some sort of training. I remember asking a woman in our class once what type of daily activities she needed to perform to reach the level of success she set out to reach. She gave such a perfect answer that I wish I would’ve thought to write it down. When I asked her why she was taking the course, she told me she was never able to do those things.
Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.
This woman knew exactly what to do to become successful. Yet up to that point, she found little success. The problem wasn’t knowledge; the problem was her heart. Scripturally and in reality, the heart has many different functions. Even biologically, the heart serves as more than just a pump for the circulatory system. According to pervasive research, our heart has what is called a “little brain.” This makes sense in light of Scripture, which often refers to thought and intention beginning in the heart, not the brain. Christ emphasized this reality in the Sermon on the Mount when he emphasized that the action of committed sin is not an action in the outside world, but rather it is an intention already played out in the heart.
Love Is Verb
One would be hard-pressed to find examples in Scripture where the word “love” is defined as the feeling. In the modern vernacular, thousands of songs and poems equate love the feeling, but in actuality, when Christ says love your neighbor, he gives examples of the actions one may take to display that love. Christ gives us the key to initiating action, and it is not thinking the right things in our brain. The key to action intention of our hearts. Therefore, if you want to take the actions that we need to reach the level of success that we want to sales, we must use love to engage hearts. This love must be displayed in three primary areas.
- We must love God.
- We must love our customers.
- We must love our product.
Loving and Serving Christ
As we see in the scripture from Colossians above, we are to work as though we are working for Christ, not ourselves. The underlying idea is that we would love Christ more than ourselves. It means that we put him first. This is not a small concept, especially in the world of sales. The way we serve our customers and represent ourselves takes an entirely different tenor if we do so as Christ would.
Christ saw the countless people stretched out before him as a crop ready for harvest. He never stopped trying to reach people, even when they were difficult and even when others thought they were unreachable. He never stopped for the day because he was tired. He did not do all of these things out of some blind ambition, but rather it was his profound and inconceivable love for humanity that drove him. If we, as salespeople, could find but only a modicum of this love, we would not be able to hire enough helpers to reap the harvest that would surely ensue.
Loving and Serving Our Customers
“Loving our neighbor as ourselves” could just as easily read, “Love your customer as yourself.” I was around cars most of my life. I have purchased plenty. Up until the time I worked for CarMax, my experience buying used cars was fraught with the disappointment of unrealized expectations. CarMax change my perception. By offering the level of inspection and reconditioning they have become known for, and by offering a return policy, Carmax changed the used car industry in my view.
As I was explaining the CarMax process to my customers, I was pulling for them to buy from me. Not because I wanted to earn the commission, but because I knew if they didn’t buy from me, they would likely end up with a far inferior product. Not effectively convincing them of the value of the cars offered by my company harmed my customers. I loved them too much to allow that to happen. This desire fueled my success.
Loving Our Products
If we continue with the idea that Paul’s ministry can be analogous to selling, one can say that Paul’s “product” was Christ. If we look at his ministry in this way, many things become apparent. One of those things is that one must love his product for the problem it solves. The best way to select a product that is meaningful to you is to select one that has solved the problem for which it was designed in your own life. The bigger the problem, the more love.
I mention multiple times in my book, “Sales According to Paul,” that owning the product I sold was one of the biggest turning points in my sales career. All of the reasons a salesperson gives for not owning her product are likely the same reasons her customers give for not buying. To empathize with her customer’s emotions on the issue, the salesperson must resolve those things in her own life. Paul couldn’t have loved Jesus and not accepted Him.
Conclusion
It is no wonder that Paul begins his treatise on transformation by imploring readers to work on their heart condition. We learn that all action is conceived of and begins in the heart. Love is a verb, and it is the action the heart is designed to perform. If we love our Lord, our customer and neighbor as ourselves, and our product as an owner, our growth is limitless
