In most industries today, a handful of ideal customers have become universal targets. Nearly every industrial salesperson dreams of calling on the CEO’s or managing directors of those top companies, which logically means that there are maybe 500 customers for millions of sellers.

With such intense competition, conventional approaches are not equal to the challenge. Salespeople need to develop strategies that distinguish their products, services and their organisations in the mind of the customer.

Making a sale has always involved an element of systematic planning, but strategic selling means more than rehearsing product information and timing the close. Strategic selling begins with understanding your company’s strategy, vision and distinctiveness and then selecting high profile customers.

The next step, logically, is anticipating each stage of the buying process – from analyzing the competition to identifying the influencers and decision-makers and being switched in to the buyer’s political issues.

In other words, there is a need for a comprehensive strategic profile and rigorous opportunity assessment process.

Most important, strategic selling means strategizing from the customer’s point of view.

Top achievers see strategic selling as a routine part of their work – not a final resort.

What Are The Implications For Sales Management?

For companies to remain competitive now, their sales organisation must be able to respond positively to changing economic tides. As businesses strive to establish customer orientation, sales partnerships and a strategic approach to selling, they are demanding more and more from their salespeople, but ensuring that these new methods are widely practiced and smoothly implemented falls to sales management.

Building Productivity:

Sales productivity is a strategic issue. That’s why problems in this area stem from salespeople being unclear about their company’s priorities – i.e. what their message should be and what they should be selling.

The trend in industry of removing layers of management between the sale force and the general manager presents a challenge to those sales managers who remain. To begin with, the sales manager becomes an essential link between company strategy and what takes place in the customer’s office. He or she must not only grasp the corporate vision, but be able to communicate it to the sales force in terms of the real effects on sales practices.

PS: Why 99%? Because 99% of companies in North America have less than 100 employees, and we can therefore assume that at least one resident of the “C-Level Suite” will be involved in the decision making process.

News: Tomorrow, Daniel Waldschmidt is back with an insightful and highly informative view of the CRM sector – including some surprises.

This will in fact be my 1000th post, and on Monday, you will be able to download a superb EBook containing just fifty of my all time favourites – you will not want to miss it!

Yes, you read it correctly, 85% – as Dave Stein highlighted in his post last week – Promoting Your Best Salesrep to Manager? Not So Fast…

I have said it often enough, but it worth repeating – the single most common mistake that organizations make is promoting their number one salesperson into the role of sales manager, thereby depriving themselves in a single stroke of their best producer and hamstringing their sales force with an ineffective manager.

The skills required for managing, mentoring and developing a sales team are totally different from those required for selling.

Sound obvious? Yep, to me too, so why is not obvious to the 80% of the companies who invest so little time and energy in trying to hire and then develop the right man/woman?

As a result, it’s not uncommon to find newly promoted sales managers who regret having taken a management position and may even leave to get back into sales.

I spend quite a lot of my time questioning the motives of would-be sales managers: Is it the kudos that is attractive? The lure of a new car? The power that comes with authority? Increased responsibility?

The reality is that it can be one of the loneliest and most stressful jobs in the world. Being suddenly propelled from a situation where you are, by and large, completely responsible for your own achievement, into another where you are totally dependent on your team for your success.

Is it any wonder that so many managers fail so early, in what could have been such a promising career?

Traversing That Bridge Between Sales & Management

When a salesperson gains promotion to management the first thing they have to do is quickly acquaint themselves with a new set of working relationships – and a new set of rules – for which they are usually totally unprepared.

The salesperson’s primary working relationships are with customers. However the sales manager’s is with the sales force i.e. his subordinates.

Essential attributes include:

Successful Salesperson:

- Personal drives (Ego).
- Needs to win battles (Individual sales).
- Able to work alone.
- Persuades customers to see his/her point.
- Needs selling skills, personal skills and knowledge.
- Able to work away from the office.
- Works well with people and numbers.
- Good at implementing sales tactics.

Successful Sales Manager:

- Submission of personal needs to the goals of the Company (Corporate drive).
- Needs to win the war (Meet corporate goals).
- Able to work with others.
- Persuades the sales team to see the Company’s point.
- Needs management skills and marketing knowledge.
- Needs to work at the office.
- Works well with people, numbers, paperwork and the corporate hierarchy.
- Good at developing sales and marketing strategies.

The most common danger in having sales managers who are basically super salespeople is that “relations with subordinates” including the critical tasks of development and supervision may deteriorate.

Insufficient Time for Sales Team Development:

The majority of sales managers – new and experienced alike – say they do not have sufficient time to train and develop their sales teams, let alone themselves. They are so focused on sales results – and so accustomed to achieving success through their personal pursuit of those results – that they overlook their greatest potential source of power, the power to increase sales performance by developing their people.

The end result? Poor sales results – in fact around 50% of frontline-sales professionals will miss quota this year – that’s 1 in 2!

All roads lead back to the sales manager, because it is always she or he, who has the “opportunity to make a difference”

Every sales manager has a powerful role to play in developing and supporting their team members’ potential so that an increasing emphasis is placed on performance management to enable more salespeople to achieve more of their potential.

I have identified the eight most common reasons why salespeople fail i.e.

Wrong or no selection process = The wrong person for the position

Wrong or no training = Insufficiently developed

Wrong or no planning = Expected to do all of their own planning

Wrong or no supervision = Left without competent supervision

Wrong or no motivation = Not properly motivated to meet objectives

Wrong or no stimulation = Not stimulated by appropriate incentives

Wrong or no evaluation = Not regularly appraised against a set of agreed objectives

Wrong or no executive action = Not adequately supported by a competent manager

And you know what? The sales manager has control over all of these factors, including the final one!

So here is a very clear message to every VP Sales and every HR department; before you waste one more cent on sales team skills development, invest in your sales manager or sales management team – you must.

What is the point of having great running backs and wide-receivers, if your QB can’t throw or pass?

PS: A Must for Every Manager: Keith Rosen’s only FREE Webinar. Discover What Top Managers Do To Drive More Sales. http://bit.ly/9E97hy

As we all know, the trend during the last few years has been toward technology-based Customer Relationship Management Systems (CRMs).

However, research conducted by the Garner Group (see diagram below) has shown that the benefits a company can realize from any such innovation are dramatically higher when four vital components are in place together:

* Technology (CRMs for example),
* A clearly defined sales process,
* Training and personnel development
* Performance-related compensation.

Often companies will invest thousands of pounds in CRM technology, sales training, and performance-related compensation packages for their salespeople, yet forget about defining the sales process. As a consequence the investment made in other areas cannot be maximized unless there is a process in place to underpin these three factors.

An Organizational Culture That Supports a Consultative Sales Process:

It is now a widely accepted fact that you cannot divorce the competence and performance of the sales force from the competence and performance of the organization as a whole.
In a customer-focused organization, everyone is part of the sales process. Which is why an organization’s culture should breed collaboration and sharing of knowledge so that every department works openly and efficiently together to support the overall sales process.

Building a Solid Sales Foundation:

When a consultative sales process has been defined, sold to the sales force, and supported by other departments within an organization, the stage is set for transformational performance improvements. Just like you need to put in a solid foundation when building a house, the sales process is the foundation for future sales success, but do remember – a sales process requires constant monitoring to ensure it is being properly implemented.

Many of my colleagues and friends do not enjoy negotiating – in fact they absolutely hate it. Me, I love the cut and thrust, and look forward to that stage of the buying cycle.

Here are some thoughts:

A skilled negotiator will create high levels of rapport and be sensitive and empathetic to the people they are negotiating with, yet can still be hard on the issues.

The ability to separate the people from the issues, and recognise that negotiations are often fraught with emotional intensity, can help sharpen the focus on the interests of the other party to better balance perceptions.

If the negotiation doesn’t appear to be going anywhere and your prospect is behaving like a bully you might feel angry and frustrated. You may already have considered simply agreeing to their demands.

In difficult negotiations, there are four vital behaviours that can increase your resourcefulness and consequently your opportunities for getting to “Win-Win”

1. Manage your emotional state

Build rapport by matching the other person’s style, pace and approach until you have achieved a ‘connection’ Personalise the negotiation by using “I” rather than your organisation’s name. This demonstrates your belief in your proposal and highlights your credibility.

In the face of feelings like anger, disappointment, frustration, confusion, and resentment, we often react without thinking. In such a situation mentally detach yourself and think about it before you respond. It helps to reframe attacks and tactical manoeuvres as feedback that the other person’s interests have not been fully acknowledged. Stay focused on your goal of reaching an agreement.

2. Look for quick mutual wins to build the belief “we can agree”

The more abstract your communication the more likely you are to reach agreement. Therefore, seek to gain agreement at an abstract level first and then get into the detail. For example, if two people wanted what appears to be very different things, such as a) nuclear disarmament and b) more resources spent on defence, if you looked at finding out both sides highest intention, you may discover that ‘peace’ was the desired outcome for both people. Therefore, at this abstract level they have found agreement so the negotiation can continue by gradually getting more detailed. Questions that chunk up your prospect into the bigger picture include:

- For what purpose?
- What’s your intention behind (negotiating point)?

Seek to address the easy/quickest areas of agreement first to reinforce the process of agreement is simple and straightforward. If you discover an area where agreement may not be reached quickly then agree to leave it until later. If some points become contentious it can help discussions if you both move your body, because the mind and body are connected, physical movement helps to create mental movement. That’s why a walk can work wonders during tough negotiations. Provide regular summaries of what you have both accomplished to install the belief that the negotiation is making progress.

Some sales people write out all the points to be negotiated on separate sheets of paper, then ask each point is agreed they move the paper to a different place, so that the buyer can physically see the progress being made which serves to motivate the entire process.

3. Use active listening skills and ask questions to give you a greater understanding of the other person’s viewpoint.

Giving good attention to people makes them more intelligent. Poor attention makes them stumble over their words and appear stupid. You are best positioned to change someone’s mind after you have listened to that person. People tend to close down and stick to their position until they feel heard. The goal of active listening is for you to hear and understand other people – their words, thoughts, and feelings, and to let them know you’ve heard and understood them.

Acknowledge their motivations, feelings, and point of view, even when you don’t agree with what they are saying. Your goal is to understand the message, not judge the validity of what they say.

4. Build trust by negotiating fairly

Demonstrations of power erode trust. If you are on the receiving end of this type of behaviour, describe your observations, and the consequences of continuing the current process. For example: “You know you’ve named what seems to me a low price, and so now I’ll name a higher price, and then we’ll each insist on our position until one of us gives in. I don’t find my best negotiations work like this.”

Then propose a different way to proceed, for example: “It would help me to understand the criteria of a fair offer if we could take a look at some of the relevant standards in this industry.”

Before beginning the negotiation it can help to agree the ground rules and stick to them.

Act with integrity and hold a healthy respect for the intentions of the individual you are negotiating with. There is always a reason why a point of negotiation is important to the buyer and if we can appreciate more about their underlying reasons, this knowledge can be used and acted upon.

Negotiation really can be that pleasurable, and there is nothing to fear – just value yourself; your company; your solution. Stop leaving money on the table in order to grab that quick close!

Look back on your achievements this year, and add just 1% gross margin to every sale – then add it up!

News: Want to improve your negotiation skills? I am shortly presenting a FREE Masterclass: ” The Dirty Secrets Of The World’s Best Negotiators” – Details soon.

 Plus, I know that you are eagerly awaiting ….

We are very, very close to launch, so a little more patience please. Today was post number 996, and that means …well, you do the math

Then comes Top Sales World on the 14th …and then, how about this:

“In 2011, Jonathan will be launching TougherAtTheTop.com a site dedicated to sales managers and sales leaders, which will precede the publication of his first book with the same title, and also his “Tougher at the Top” sixty venue UK tour, which kicks-off in April 2011.”

Phew!! – more soon on that too, I promise.

Despite what many inexperienced salespeople think, the first sale isn’t the end of the sales process but the beginning of the next sales cycle.

What you do after you’ve made the first sale determines whether you get the next one or any referrals.

New customers have a tendency to evolve through three phases once they decide to buy from you.

Initially they feel very excited about their decision before going through a learning curve where they may struggle with blending in your products/services. Finally, they begin to experience the value that you provide and the relationship settles down and finds its own balance.

During Phase 2 this can be a potentially vulnerable time for a sales person, because without the benefit of an established track record, in the face of possible problems, no matter how minor, this is the time when most newly acquired customers are apt to change their mind.

The process of buying has four main components that all customers will evolve through.

They:

1. Have to be motivated to want to buy from you
2. Make a decision to buy from you
3. Want to feel convinced that they have made the right decision
4. Look for reassurance that they are doing the right thing

Once the customer has placed their order they are at the second stage in the buying process. If a sales person doesn’t provide the relevant reassurance that validates the benefits of their decision, then the likelihood of the customer cancelling their order increases dramatically. This is often referred to as ‘Buyers Remorse.’ Therefore, it’s important to provide tangible demonstrations that the customer has made the right decision. These can include, the use of testimonials, higher initial servicing levels, regular contact and if appropriate training sessions on the areas effected by the introduction of your product or service.

There are a number of additional ways that can improve the post sale part of the sales process:

• Set a service agenda for the first thirty days after the sale so that your customer knows exactly what they can expect from you. This may include visits and phone calls at the point when they receive your product or your service begins. This enables you to have established contact frequency at important times when teething problems could occur.

• Ask each customer for their preferences in the way you manage their account and ensure that they have all the contact information for every eventuality.

• After the call send a hand-written note thanking them for their business. This is a personal touch that only takes a moment to do, yet leaves the customer feeling valued and special.

• Identify what areas in particular the customer feels is vital to the way you manage their account so that you can pay close attention to these areas.

• Agree up-front how future problems will be handled.

• Document all successes and evidence of your value in writing. For example: “I noticed that your delivery was received on time last Thursday and am delighted that you now have our products in stock.”

• Actively ask questions to check their satisfaction. For example, “Was everything as you had expected?” “Is there anything we need to change?”  This helps to flush out problems and manages the customer’s expectations so they feel they are genuinely being looked after. If there is a problem, the earlier you know about it the sooner you can remedy it.

• Finally, resolve any complaints quickly and to the customer’s satisfaction.

The sales process (road) is as comprehensive as that!

The JF Guest Author Spot

Kendra Lee

Social media is all the buzz in prospecting lately. You hear about it everywhere with Facebook Fan pages, tweeting, and LinkedIn profiles. You may even have an account on several different social networks. But have you given thought to how to use it to increase your prospecting results, or do you just see it as something fun to do when you have time?

Or, is it possible that you’re one of the skeptics who don’t believe social media can really bring you new prospects?

Let’s ponder that for a moment.

The two primary questions in prospecting are always:
1. How can you reach a broader audience?
2. How can you reach your audience more effectively?

Once you’ve defined your target market and your ideal prospect within it, you identify the key business needs they have and craft your value proposition. You’re ready to prospect.

But who do you approach? And, how do you approach them?

Referrals and networking are always the desired approach because the personal relationship increases your chance of gaining access. But that isn’t always possible, especially if you want a broader reach than that. So, you supplement them with the tried and true prospecting methods of cold calling and sending emails.

The challenge with cold calling and email prospecting is that your results are only as effective as the list you’re operating from and the probability that your contacts got your message.

To address the challenge that your target prospects may not have noticed your message, you call and send emails repeatedly over a period of weeks, maybe even months. These repeated touches will definitely increase your response rate, but there will always be a percentage of those stubborn few prospects who never respond. What that percentage is depends on how good your message is.

In the end, your prospecting success is bound by the size of your list and the percentage of contacts you can entice to respond so you can start a conversation and ultimately draw new opportunities into your pipeline.

What you need is another prospecting strategy to supplement the cold calling and email and give it legs to reach a broader audience.

Here’s where social media comes into play.

By expanding your reach beyond your list, your great message will draw in prospects you haven’t even heard of and wouldn’t have met through referrals and networking. What I’ve discovered over several years of tweeting and commenting is that the people who watch social networks often are not the same people who respond to emails and calls.

Don’t get me wrong. They may respond if you use the hounding strategy I’ve taught you, but what they probably do instead is watch you. Your emails and calls with the great message caught their attention. They saw your Twitter, LinkedIn or Facebook link in your signature and started following you so they could listen to what else you have to say.

They aren’t ready to engage in a full conversation just yet. They want to get to know you through your comments. Over time they begin to respond to your comments. They may even email or call you directly!

Even better is that new people begin to watch you. Because you’re tweeting about the issues and triggering events your micro-segment is interested in, those are the people who perk up and pay attention.

Suddenly you’ve moved beyond your list. Your message has legs, expanding out to others in your target market that your list builder and personal network didn’t know about. Not only have you increased your reach to a new group of people, but you’ve increased the percentage of responses and filled your pipeline with a fresh set of opportunities in a manner you could never have found before.

People are watching social networks. I can’t tell you how they find the time to do it. I can only tell you that they are doing it, and you want to be out there to meet them.

If you aren’t sure what you should be commenting about to attract prospects, follow me on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

Kendra Lee is a top IT Seller, Prospect Attraction Expert, author of the award winning book “Selling Against the Goal” and president of KLA Group. Specializing in the IT industry, KLA Group works with companies to break in and exceed revenue objectives in the Small and Midmarket Business (SMB) segment. Ms. Lee is a frequent speaker at national sales meetings and association events. To find out more about the author, read her latest articles, or to subscribe to her newsletter visit www.klagroup.com or call +1 303.741.6636.

The JF Guest Author Post

Lori Richardson

Small business owners, entrepreneurs and those who “sell” for a living typically lead busy lives. We are often overworked, somewhat isolated, and often multi-tasking on dozens of projects at one time.  Sometimes we feel exceptionally organized and other times at the opposite extreme: buried. Most often we are somewhere in-between.

Regardless of how busy one can be as a seller, a common characteristic of everyone is in leaving money on the table in one form or another. It stems from poor or disorganized follow up and follow-through.

Example: A strategic partner who can send you multiple “more qualified” prospects your way indicates to you that you two should get together. You mean well, but you do not set a next action on the calendar nor do you immediately write this person to ensure that some follow up will take place. Ultimately you’ll do nothing – and no telling what could have been (that will not materialize).

I have a theory that it is (nearly) NEVER too late to turn the following four situations around, and have seen many business relationships blossom because of them. Notice that I am focusing on people, not on a business in general, because businesses are made up of people.

Thank someone:

It IS never too late to thank someone. The first instinct often when someone in business does something generous or helpful is to thank them. If for whatever reason you don’t do it right away, do not think that you are too late to do it. It does not have to be awkward – rather it is all in the delivery.

Example: A cookie bouquet-type of company in a particular city found out more than a year later that I was the one who had referred then a corporate customer who purchased thousands of dollars worth of their products. Upon learning about me, the referrer, they proceeded to send me a free bouquet and asked to participate in an upcoming event I am doing in their town.
Tip: Do set yourself up to be able to jot a handwritten note and drop in the mail the same day after you meet someone or have a particularly helpful or important conversation. Most people won’t do this, so you will set yourself ahead of the pack.

Refer someone:

You know of a person who heads a company or is a seller for an organization and you never have referred them to your customers or to those who you think really could use their services. It is not too late- get organized and make a list of who you could refer to whom. Then execute. You have no idea how grateful and helpful others may become in exchange for your help and support. The world opens up to you when you generously endorse those you know and trust. Instead of deciding it is too late, instead make the referral and you can joke about how long it took you to actually make it happen if you’d like – or just do it and don’t think twice about it.

Endorse someone:

It takes minutes to create great endorsements for others with today’s technology. If your contact is on LinkedIn, create an endorsement for them – and make it a good one. Do not use fluff terminology (example, “Oh, his company is so fantastic……”) but instead create a constructive endorsement stating what specifically about the company or service that was particularly helpful for your business.

If you have not talked to this person for some time, it can be a very pleasant surprise to receive a note in your Inbox that you have received an endorsement through LinkedIn. There are also ways to endorse right on someone’s website. Do this generously, every week.

Reconnect with someone:

For some reason, people often feel uncomfortable calling or e-mailing someone in business they have not talked with in a while. So, what do they do? Nothing. Missed opportunity.
Do not hesitate to pick up the telephone and call someone you have not spoken with for months or years. Make a list of those strategic partners and former customers or near customers whom you hit it off with, but for some reason, the opportunity got derailed. It is not too late to reconnect.

Example: I had a client that I did some work with a couple years prior, and didn’t feel that I had done my best work with them. For an upcoming event, I invited the CEO and he did attend. After the event was over, I mentioned to the CEO how I felt about the work that we did, and he assured me I had offered them great value, and urged me to call him the next week. I did, and we continued to do more projects for another 18 months.

To summarize, are you leaving money and opportunities on the table simply because you think you missed your turn to contact someone? Know that it s (nearly) never too late – yes, once or twice it can be – but most often the person on the other end of the phone or the computer will smile and thank you for thinking of them – and the trust you have previously built will help take your offer to the next level.  If nothing else, do a good deed with an online endorsement – and see where that takes you.

Lori Richardson is a Seattle-based sales strategist who is on the Fabulous 50 Tour this year talking to entrepreneurs about innovation and collaboration. Follow the tour at http://www.smallbizinnovators.com or reach her @scoremoresales on Twitter.

“The less I see of what’s his name? The more I forget him.”  Anon

Failing to focus salespeople’s activity reduces efficiency and consequently reduces results, because there isn’t a salesperson alive that believes they have enough time in their working week to complete all the activities they want to achieve!

Time is a huge constraint on salespeople’s activities so that when their manager asks them for more, it’s no wonder that they are overwhelmed.

Poor Quality Activity

Secondly, but equally important, salespeople often aren’t clear about how to identify the prospects most likely to have a genuine need for their product or service. Without an objective way to prioritize which prospects to contact first and/or an efficient strategy for contacting them, salespeople are doomed to waste a large percentage of their time.

Another huge dilemma for many salespeople is how to divide their time between servicing existing clients and generating new business from new prospects. Existing clients frequently make requests for service that could be dealt with by support staff. But salespeople who lack a disciplined, future-orientated plan for generating new contacts and sales, often find themselves spending more time attending to “urgent” tasks for existing accounts instead.

A common approach among salespeople can be summarized in the saying “If you throw enough mud against the wall, some of it is bound to stick.” This approach is exhausting, demoralizing, extremely unproductive, and very expensive in the long term.

Far too frequently, competent salespeople are expected to channel their own activities into the areas that will produce the quickest wins.

Unfortunately, left to their own devices, they don’t develop and pursue a formal strategy for moving a sale tangibly forward during each prospect interaction, neither do they have a clearly defined set of goals against which to measure the progress they are making. Typically, their judgment is based on gut reaction and is purely subjective – i.e. “Oh yes, I’ll get that order, he likes me.” – because salespeople have to be optimistic by nature. They end up “dancing around” with prospects, in the hope that eventually they will get to their chosen point on the dance-floor – i.e. the sale.

In this scenario, the customer has complete control.

Therefore, we can confidently conclude that: Quality Activity  =  Quality Results

This is a follow up to my recent post: “The Real Reasons Why Buyers Resist & Object”

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:

Those who:

• Covertly disagree

• Openly disagree

• Comply – reluctantly

• Remain undecided

• Have insufficient information
  
• Are not able to see a need

• Need to think it over

• Consider it the wrong time

• Have to refer the decision to others

You will need a different strategy depending on what stage the person to be influenced is at. Be realistic about your chances – it is unlikely that others will move from open disagreement to active support. The best you may achieve is to move them to neutral – but that’s victory!

Covert Disagreement

‘Well, Ok, if that’s what you want.’

The customer thinks to himself/herself: ‘What a load of nonsense – I’m not doing that.’

These people are actively working against you. Gently transform their energy into a willingness to talk openly about their concerns. Once you have done this, you can then:

• Work to build rapport and a positive relationship
• Stress areas of agreement before moving onto areas of disagreement
• Use humor and positive anecdotes
• Meet regularly to develop a working relationship
• Respect their position, promote your own

 Open Disagreement

‘Hmm – it might be possible, but I doubt it…’

People who disagree need time to come around to your way of thinking.

• Support your statements with proof and evidence
• Use statistics and numbers accurately and appropriately; avoid trickery
• Be clear about areas of agreement and disagreement
• Ask little and get it, rather than a lot and be turned down
• Demonstrate ways in which you understand their viewpoint
• Show that you seek a ‘win-win’ outcome

Reluctant Compliance

‘Well, if that’s what you want, that’s what we’ll have to do.’

Link your point of view to the compliant person’s feelings, values and concerns to move him or her towards actively supporting your ideas.

• Stress connections between your proposal or position and the person’s interests
• Avoid complex arguments
• Focus on simple and vivid points and benefits
• Be prepared to repeat these in many different forms
• Stress mutual benefits
• Point out mutual losses, if your ideas aren’t accepted

Undecided

‘I’m just not sure it will work.’

Work to tip the scales in your favor.

• Focus on your side of the issue
• Re-state mutual benefits
• Minimize/solve problem issues
• Support your case with expert evidence
• Cite cases when similar proposals or ideas have been successful
• Break your proposal down into small, more acceptable action items
• Follow up (in writing?) to avoid the person slipping back into indecision

No Information/Insufficient Information

‘I need more background information before I can make a decision.’

Find out what information is missing or needed.

• Back it with proof and evidence
• Avoid swamping the other person with too much info
• Invite questions and requests for clarification
• Get the person to agree that the information is sufficient and acceptable
• Make your information lively and attractive

Not Able To See A Need

‘I just don’t think we have a need for that right now.’

Acknowledge need is the bedrock of acceptance:

• Conduct more detailed fact-finding
• Get agreement along the way that needs exist
• Ask what may happen if these needs remain unfulfilled
• Illustrate how similar needs have been met for others
• Create a summary of the specific benefits of your suggestion

Need To Think It Over

‘Hmm – I must give this some thought. Can you come back next month?’

Some people do need time to think things through. Establish aspects of the idea they need to think about: ‘What exactly is that you want to think over … (Don’t pause here) … is it x, or y, or z?’

• Reiterate the main benefits of your proposals
• Clarify any misunderstandings
• Solve any remaining problems or issues
• Make positive use of any delay
• Provide a written summary of your ideas and the benefits

Wrong Time

‘It’s a bad time for us to be making decisions like this.’

Assuming this is a genuine and not a delaying tactic, you can use the waiting time to your mutual advantage.

• Ask when would be an appropriate time
• Use the time delay to road test your ideas, organize a dry run, double check your plans

And Finally – Referring The Decision To Others

‘I’ll need to have a word with my partner and come back to you.’

You should already have established that the person you are attempting to influence has the authority to say ‘yes’.

In which case, ask ‘Are you happy with what I am suggesting?’ If the person is happy, suggest that you both take the issue to the higher authority and work as a team to get final agreement.

This list may not be exhaustive, but it is a good start.

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 recognize 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 (e.g. company policy, legal reasons, and 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 them 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; minimize 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 in Part Two of this article, ‘Categories of Buyer Resistance’ I identify them.