At times of decisions we often have those “feelings” in our gut that are trying to tell us which way to jump. Those same feelings occur at times when we meet a new person, or are faced with decisions at work, or when we observe changes in behavior of our co-workers and friends. These hunches are trying to tell us something, but should we listen?

 

Intuitions, gut-feelings or hunches, whatever you want to call them are coming from our subconscious minds. Our subconscious is that huge filing cabinet in our brain where are stored all of our experiences, sensations and everything we have ever read or heard. Our subconscious is many times larger than our conscious mind. People we know who seem to have a great memory for everything, are either instinctively accessing, or have learned how to tap into this filing cabinet.

 

Meditation, reflection and self-hypnosis are conscious means we use to open the drawers in our subconscious mind. Being able to free our minds and focus on information and experiences will often pull the data we see into our conscious and give us nearly total recall.

 

Whatever we do the most of during our waking hours is information that we store. The more experiences that are stored in our subconscious, the more hunches we get, so most of our gut feelings involve our day-to-day activities. A professional gambler who follows his hunches is often very “lucky.” His subconscious mind is steering him in the right direction because of all of his past experiences. He is subconsciously counting cards or calculating the odds on a particular bet. His winnings are based upon experience, not luck.

 

Police detectives are trained to follow their hunches in the course of an investigation. This instinct often leads them in right direction for solving a crime or concluding an inquiry, or just as often it keeps them from following the wrong path in an investigation.

 

In the workplace, where most of us spend a lot of time, we get hunches about business decisions, or co-worker interactions, or an inflection in the boss’ voice. Often these feelings are very subtle, but sometimes they are shouted in our ear.

 

For professional salespersons, these hunches occur like flashes of inspiration when you hear someone talking about a particular company or person. The sales mind is always looking for opportunity so our subconscious gives us a nudge when we hear what some may think of as irrelevant talk.

 

One time while I was watching the evening news with a pre-dinner drink, a news story about budgetary problems with a large government agency was being covered. I got a huge subconscious nudge that triggered an idea of how to apply my employer’s new rebate program to this agency’s problems. What resulted was a sale of more than three million dollars in new business annually for my company, and a substantial rebate to the agency on money they were already spending . . .  but previously with my competitors.

 

I got a much more obvious nudge one time when I was being seated in a purchasing agent’s office. I noticed a framed sampler on the wall behind his desk. On it was embroidered, “The Sorrow of Poor Quality Lasts Longer than the Joy of Low Price.” I knew I was going to make a sale that day.