TOP PLATE DISSEMINATION

Years ago I reluctantly went to a workshop on dissemination. Even though I went with one foot dragging the workshop turned out to be quite helpful and I was glad that I invested the time to attend. There was one lesson I learned that really impinged upon me that afternoon and to this day I refer to it frequently. The person conducting the workshop presented the lesson in the form of an analogy. I’ve always been one to appreciate a good analogy and when used appropriately, analogies can provide a great way to by-pass a lot of explaining and quickly achieve understanding. I know this particular one really helped to give me an understanding about something that should have been obvious but wasn’t.

It is a common practice that in those times when we have something to sell, someone to recruit or someone to convert we will compile a list of “hot” prospects. Quite often those at the top of our hit list are relatives, close friends, and associates. So with our list in hand, we enthusiastically head off to pitch our pitch, make our sell and claim our prize. Then we’re surprised to run head on into rejection and failure. We encounter rejection and we fail, in part, because we did not use the “top plate” method.


The top plate analogy:


I’m sure that you’ve been to a cafeteria’s buffet line for more than a meal or two in your lifetime so you’ll be familiar with this. As you know, before moving down the food line you have to first grab a tray and assemble your dishes and silverware. Usually, when you take your plate you take it from what is known as a plate well. In a plate well the plates are placed one on top of the other into a recessed opening that is just barely larger than the plates stacked within. Only one plate is visible to be picked up and when someone removes that plate from the top of the stack the next plate directly underneath is elevated (by a spring system inside the plate well) to now be the top plate and so it goes until the well is emptied. Imagine the mess a person would cause if they wanted to take a plate that was positioned lower down in the well. If they were to attempt to blindly go for another plate other than the one that is already in a position to be taken - what might happen?

Whether we admit to it or not, we are always selling something to somebody. When we neglect to first look for and discern the “top plates” or make the mistake of assuming that some individual is a “top plate” when they are not, we are only setting ourselves up for failure and the possibility of unnecessary upset. There is always a “top plate”. It just takes a bit of patience and observation to spot them. When you succeed in identifying a “top plate” another will spring up to be approached. The next thing you know you’re sells stats are up, you have a group, a larger congregation, an army or whatever aband without any upsets.

How this can be applied to dissemination of the Pickens Plan is, of course, obvious.