DOJO
Have you heard of psychological reactance? This brief excerpt from a Traction Tuesday meeting is all about the human limbic brain and our very human reactions (resistance!) to perceived threats to our personal freedoms. It turns out that no one likes being sold to (or on)…but most of us really enjoy going shopping with friends. Let’s look at some more of the dos and don’ts of successful and enjoyable sales and business relationships.
Note: This exercise is intended for individual or team sales agents as a way to practice and reinforce learning. Incorporate this practice into your day and, if possible, into your ongoing sales work. This practice shouldn’t take you more than 10-15 minutes a day. Good luck and have fun!
Introduction Sometimes your potential client will disagree with you, raise objections, share concerns and worries (or all of the above!). In these times it’s important to “be like water” and move with this energy and not against it. For this we can strengthen our muscles in listening well, asking questions and disagreeing while still building bridges and accepting the other person’s opinion.
Step 1: Find a suitable conversation partner among your peers. No matter if it's someone from the office or your private space. Only condition: it must be a person, who disagrees with you on a certain topic.
Step 2: Set an appointment for both of you for max. 15 minutes.
Step 3: Set the alarm clock to the timeframe you choose for your discussion and get to it.
Step 4: Open the discussion, by stating the topic as well as your individual position on the matter. The more contrary your positions, the better for the exercise.
Step 5: Discuss the topic without using invasive or attacking language. No accusations, no imputations, no "You" messages. Allowed are only "I"-messages, like "I see...", "I feel..", "I think...", "I observe...". Try to build bridges across your controversial topic and find commonalities within your contrary stand positions.
It helps to "sum up" what you hear from your counterpart every time she speaks BEFORE you start adding to it with your perspective, ie.: "Ok, so you mean... because it is important to you that ... ."
Goal for the week
Tuesday: Have a 5 minute discussion with your partner
Wednesday: Have a 10 minute discussion with your partner
Thursday: Have a 15 minute discussion with your partner
✅If you’d like to learn more about building bridges of understanding with others, have a look at our video using Non-Violent Communication in Sales