As a salesperson, you must be able to explore how a company or business alters a significant component of its organization, such as its culture, the underlying technologies or infrastructure it uses to operate, or its internal processes.
The Challenge in Selling New Ideas
The internal environment contains pressures that impact our customer’s territory, including how they work. Our ability to discuss these issues and provide insights is vital to overcoming barriers to change. You will have to navigate seven predictable reactions to change in your accounts.
Buyers are Self-Conscious
People will feel awkward, ill at ease, and self-conscious. Change means doing something different; as such, people will almost always react with some degree of discomfort. If you don’t feel awkward when you’re trying something new, you’re probably not doing anything differently. As a salesperson, be mindful of people’s feelings during this time.
Read : How To Build Trust With Executives and Close More Sales?
Buyers Don’t Want to Give Up Anything
People initially focus on what they have to give up. It’s human nature for an individual’s first reaction to a suggested change to be a personal sense of loss. To move forward, you must deal with this sense of loss. It may seem silly, but individuals need to be given a chance to mourn their losses, perhaps just by talking with others about how they feel. As a salesperson, you can give people a chance to process what’s happening.
Buyers Feel Alone
People will feel alone, even if everyone else is going through the exact change. It is also human nature to have a “Why me?” attitude about change, even if everyone around you faces the same thing. For the change to be successful, it is crucial for people to feel connected and understood. As a salesperson, you can offer the support people need.
Buyers Can Only Handle So Much
People can handle only so much change. Beyond a few changes―or even just one if the change is significant―people become immobilized and less productive. The best response as a salesperson: Have a clear plan and strategy for focusing people’s energy on the few desired behaviors that will produce the most significant results.
Buyers Will View Change Differently
People are at different levels of readiness for change. Although almost everyone will experience some resistance to change, some people will start getting excited about the change. In contrast, others will dread and resist doing anything differently for as long as possible. As a salesperson, I Anticipate that not everyone will be on the exact timetable.
Buyers Often Have a Scarcity Mentality
People will be concerned about having enough resources. As individuals in an organizational setting are asked to do things differently, they may perceive that since they are being asked to do more, they will need additional resources. To remain competitive in today’s markets, however, organizations must be more productive with the same or fewer resources. As a salesperson, be ready to share the trade-offs and help people think through what change means to them.
Buyers Don’t Like Getting Outside Their Comfort Zone
People will take a long to revert to their old behavior. Typically, when the focus on a change effort ends, people hope to return to what they were doing before. Though this behavior is natural, managers must counteract it. When we revert to old behaviors, we lose all we have learned. As a salesperson, help people understand that change keeps everyone forward-focused—that’s a good thing.