Jay Heinrichs is the the author of the New York Times bestseller, Thank You for Arguing: What Aristotle, Lincoln, and Homer Simpson Can Teach Us About the Art of Persuasion.

In this episode of the Salesman Podcast, Jay explains what “chaos” really is and how sales professionals can use it to their advantage.

Resources:

Jay on LinkedIn

Book: Thank You for Arguing: What Cicero, Shakespeare and the Simpsons Can Teach Us About the Art of Persuasion

JayHeinrichs.com

Book: How To Argue with a Cat: A Human’s Guide to The Art of Persuasion

Transcript

Will Barron:

Coming up on today’s episode of the salesman podcast.

 

Jay Heinrichs:

If you ever have your house inspected for its energy efficiency, one of the first things the inspectors will look for is cobwebs. And the reason for that is, spiders set up their webs, where the atmosphere’s chaotic. I was researching this book, going through a whole lot of science, business history, behavioural economics, and the like, and I expected that the greatest opportunities arose from technology either directly or indirectly.

 

Will Barron:

Hello sales nation, my name is Will Barron and I’m the host of the sales man podcast, the world’s most downloaded B2B sales show. On today’s episode, he returns and this is fourth time now, absolute legend, Jay Heinrichs, and we’re discussing how we can pull opportunity out of chaos. We go crazy deep into all kinds of things in this episode, there’s tonnes of value in it. Everything we talk about, including Jay’s books and his consulting services, are available in the show notes for this episode over at salesman.org. And with that said, let’s jump right into it.

 

Will Barron:

Jay, welcome back again to the salesman podcast.

 

Jay Heinrichs:

Thanks, Will.

 

Why Do Humans Think Negatively About Chaos, Disruption, or Change? · [01:28]

 

Will Barron:

I’m glad to have you back on Jay. Okay, so we’re going to touch on why chaos, seemingly the opposite, this is almost counter-intuitive, why chaos can bring business opportunity in a second. And that’ll be the key parts of the episode here, but just to tee things up a little bit, why do you think humans think negatively about chaos? Because clearly, that’s something that we’re going to have to deal with, if we’re going to turn it into opportunity. Why are humans seemingly wired to avoid chaos, disruption, change at all costs?

 

“If you ever have your house inspected for its energy efficiency, one of the first things the inspectors will look for is cobwebs. And the reason for that is, spiders set up their webs where the atmosphere is chaotic.” – Jay Heinrichs · [02:07] 

 

Jay Heinrichs:

I imagine it has something to do with evolution. I’m no biologist, but imagine that time in human history, when we came down from the trees and had to face all those enemies that we had, and that’s where we got our fight or flight instinct. You contrast us with, say spiders, which in some ways are superior beings to us humans. If you ever have your house inspected for its energy efficiency, one of the first things the inspectors will look for is cobwebs. And the reason for that is, spiders set up their webs, where the atmosphere is chaotic, where there are draughts, because that’s where insects fly by confused. And at the same time, you look on the other hand at dragonflies, which biologists will tell you,