Every month I receive a variety of questions from salespeople and their managers. These come from a variety of sources - my live seminars, the monthly phone seminars, questions that are sent into my newsletter, and issues that arise in the course of my consulting work. Out of all of these, I select those that I think have the most universal application, and respond to them here.
How do you go over the person's head without making them angry?
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I'm careful about ever going over someone's head in regards to some specific issue. You may win a battle but lose the war. Also, more times than not, the supervisor will support his/her subordinate�s position. So, often, when you go over someone's head, you wind up making two enemies, not just one. Having said that, it is a solid strategy to create relationships with people as high up in the organization as possible.
If you have a pre-existing relationship with the head person, you can than access that person�s position on any one issue and do it in a way that seems more like normal business than related to any specific issue.
One other thought. Your question implies that you are in the right, and your contact is wrong, and if you could only get to his/her boss, that person would see the light and buy from you. This is a very common misconception on the part of salespeople. Since you only see the situation from your perspective, you may not be aware of a number of issues that are important to the customer and that may impact the buying decision.
I'd suggest you go into that account with the mindset that there are reasons here that are holding up the purchase that you do not know about. Find out what else is on the customer�s mind, and see if you can address those issues.
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If you have any comments or questions, email them to me. I do, of course, reserve the right to edit.
Here are a few articles by Dave
that you might be interested in reading:
- The Ninth Time Management Secret: Nurture Helpful Relationships... Early into one of my sales positions, my boss informed me that the operations manager was upset with me. I was too focused and task-oriented in my dealing with the company's internal personnel who made things happen in the business. I'd come into the office, drop projects and requests on everyone's desk, and head out again. My task-oriented behavior was upsetting people. As a result, they were balking at cooperating with me. My projects were being left on the bottom of the pile, and other salespeople were getting more cooperation. I had better change my attitude, he told me, or I'd find it very difficult to succeed in this organization. My lack of good relationships with the people who could make things happen for me was hurting my performance. Eventually, I came around to understand that. I swallowed my pride, bought each one a six-pack of premium beer, apologized, and started focusing on building positive relationships with everyone inside the company.... {Read More}
- Dealing with Difficult Customers... Difficult customers come in a wide variety. There are those whose personality rubs you the wrong way. They may not be difficult for someone else, but they are for you. And then there are those who are difficult for everyone: Picky people, know-it-alls, egocentrics, fault-finders, constant complainers, etc. Every salesperson can list a number of the types...{Read More}
There are also many other action-packed articles for sales professionals that offer how-to solutions to every day sales problems that you can read online at www.davekahle.com/article.htm.
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