Nov 02 2006
Why People Resist And Object
Yes, I know, this week’s blog is terribly late, but unfortunately, my webmasters have been moving offices and everyone is behind – my apologies!
Everyone seems keen to remind me of the importance of personalising one’s blog and this week I have an excellent opportunity!
So, to my beautiful daughter Alice, “Happy sixteenth birthday my darling”
Ok, back to business. I have read a number of articles this week, all giving advice on how to overcome objections, but not one of them really pinpointed why objections arise in the first place, so here are my views on the subject:
Why People Resist And Object:
To handle resistance to your ideas and influence, you will first need to pinpoint exactly why there is an objection. Typically, people object or resist because they:
• Don’t fully understand your proposal
• Misunderstand it
• Don’t feel a need to go ahead
• Don’t recognise the benefits and advantages
• Don’t believe your claims
• Are happy to remain as they are
• Genuinely need time to think things through
• Don’t trust you
• Display general inertia
What Type Of Resistance?
Objections and resistance usually come in three identifiable forms:
A condition is a genuine, non-negotiable reason why someone can’t go ahead or agree to your proposal (eg: company policy, legal reasons, a contractual obligation).
An excuse or a put-off, is usually made because people are not convinced of the benefits of your ideas. Excuses cannot be answered – conviction is the only solution.
A real objection can include lack of money or resources, time constraints, happiness with the status quo.
Strategies & Tactics
Resistance can be very frustrating. You are anxious to get on with things and it is hard to see why others are stonewalling. This is the moment to back off and take stock.
• Listen carefully to what they are saying to you.
• Watch their body language – does it contain any hidden messages?
• Step into their shoes; try to see things from their point of view.
• Consider what would have to happen for you to be convinced?
• Plan your responses carefully.
• Take time to construct carefully thought through responses.
• Check that you have provided acceptable responses to doubts and fears.
• Seek areas of agreement and stress them, minimise areas of disagreement.
Categories Of Resistance
It is not enough to know whether people are for or against you and your ideas and proposals. The people you want to influence can be divided into nine categories and you can learn more about each category in next week’s blog.
This week’s article on my personal site is: “Recognising The Different Influencing Styles” and on the Group site, the feature is: “What Gets Buyers To Yes?” both highly readable, I am bound to say!
One of the sites that I contribute to regularly, is Michael A. Chwastiak’s The Sideroad(www.sideroad.com) Michael’s site does not merely publish articles on business or sales, but the fact that it is a “by invitation only” enterprise, means that the quality of the articles is very high – and I say that with genuine modesty – so do check it out.
If you have read my article, “Ten Suggestions For More Dynamic Sales Meetings”, you will know that I suggest at least 50% of a sales meeting should be devoted to training and skills development. With this in mind, I rediscovered an excellent product this week called, The Sales Activator®
I quote, because they describe it very accurately:
“The Sales Activator® is a groundbreaking new sales management training and development system designed and developed specifically for sales managers to use to provide ongoing sales management training, development and coaching of their sales team during sales meetings to create a sustainable increase in sales results.”
It contains more than seventy hours of development sessions, which can be delivered to meet specific needs and offers incredible flexibility.
The Sales Activator® was designed and developed by Trainique Limited, a UK based company with their HQ in Sevenoaks, Kent. The founder and MD is Nikki Owen, a very switched on lady, who has inspired a number of my articles.
Nikki is currently working on both a sequel to The Sales Activator® and with Simon Woodroffe, founder of YO! Sushi, on a range of YO! How learning products.
If you are not familiar with this excellent and innovative product, I really do recommend you to have a look here: (www.salesactivator.com)
And finally, my good friend David Bain, yes, he of buildyourownbusiness, has launched another new enterprise: www.websitepromotionmarketing.biz
WPM reviews the top free and paid for ways of successfully marketing your website online and I have no doubt it is going to be of enormous benefit to the thousands, if not millions of website owners and developers who are looking for an edge. David has a huge amount of knowledge to share and as ever, he imparts it in a way that makes sense, even to the “technically challenged” like me! My site administrators and webmaster are really impressed with it, so good luck David!
As ever, have a great week, what’s left of it – good selling and do look out for my latest newsletter, which will be published at the end of next week. – JF
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You will find more information at http://www.sales-101.co.uk/sales-master.htm or call them on +44 20 209 9861 for more information
I have read Perry Burns comments with a smile and a little intrigue. As a supposed sales professional, he has used ‘cheaper’ to try and sell on price. Any sales professional knows that 90% of the world’s organisations would be out of busines if they just sold on price. True sales masters know that it’s not about price, it’s about value and typically The Sales ActivatorR has been proven with numerous organisations to increase their sales results by a minimum of 10% over a six month period. In one finanical services organisation this equated to just under 50 million pounds!!! So The Sales Activator gets my backing as the real thing.
In business I learned a long time ago that you need to be a good innovator or a quick copier and I’m not surprised to see one of our least successful ex-distributors has made an amateurish attempt to try to copy The Sales Activator® It’s incredibly flattering and this only adds more leverage to our sales success.
The Sales Activator® now comes with an optional online Perpetual License that uses state-of-the-art technology that allows organisations to create their own development resources to ensure continual development. Watch out for two more exciting new products that will be part of The Sales Activator® branded range of learning products, scheduled for launch in January 2007. As always we continue to revolutionise the face of learning in the future and wish our network continued success.
For more information email gt@cleverdotsolutions.com or visit our website http://www.salesactivator.com to learn the secret of sales mastery