Feelings always precede commitment
A number of years ago I was in charge of selling a major IT solution to an important account. Every person involved on the customer side was in favor of our solution. Even board members were completely sold on what we had to offer. When the decision was to be made I was surprised by a new-hire that was assigned the role of decision maker. His mission and purpose was to make sure everyone could feel his power and authority. As a result his best option was to oppose what everyone wanted and opt for a competing solution. Reason and logic was thrown out the window. The chosen solution became a tool to reach other objectives than what the solution was meant to do for the organization. From this I learned an important lesson:
The decision maker is king and ultimately the only person whose feelings really matter. However, every so often the decision maker is not the one with the strongest energy tied to the final outcome. If we want to win business we need to know who has the most feelings tied to what is going to happen as a result of what we offer. This will point out which one of the stakeholders is most effective in affecting the outcome.
Even the most complex sales are about the feelings of the individual. Every decision is the sum of all feelings in an account. All people with influence on the end result will have a private agenda. That private agenda is subjective, and the subjective view of each person is tied to feelings. Let no one tell you anything else. If every person that's involved in the decision feels good about what you're proposing, then you can forget about the rational and objective reasons working against you.
Feelings always precede commitment. In complex sales every contract is the result of a shared commitment signed by the decision maker. To get to this commitment one type of balance is critical, and it's a balance that is superior to everything we do in sales - always - the balance of sensitivity and energy.
Sensitivity is 50% of who we are in communication. It's about being aware of energy. It's about being a receiver of energy. It's the filter through which we pick up and perceive information.
Energy is the other 50% of who we are in communication. It's about needing and looking for sensitivity. It's about finding a receiver of energy. It's information and the driver of information itself that always penetrates depending on the sensitivity of the receiver.
We need both. How these need to be balanced is what I'll share next time ;-)
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