Motivational Interviewing<\/a> is a method that clinical psychologists use in their conversations with clients dealing with such problems as alcoholism and other destructive habits. The premise is that clients are ambivalent about changing their behaviors, and trying to get them to change before they are ready only increases their resistance. So, the idea is to ask questions and manage the conversation so that the client talks about their own reasons for changing and arrives at their own commitment to change.<\/p>\nIt\u2019s no great leap to see how this applies to sales, and this acronym devised by Stephen Rollnick, one of the developers of the approach, is a useful reminder of how we should apply similar principles in a sales conversation:<\/p>\n
R\u2014Resist<\/strong> the righting influence<\/p>\nU\u2014Understand<\/strong> your client\u2019s motivation<\/p>\nL\u2014Listen<\/strong> to your client<\/p>\nE\u2014Empower<\/strong> your client<\/p>\nLet\u2019s elaborate a bit on each, as it applies to a sales conversation.<\/p>\n
Resist:<\/strong> Have you ever had the feeling of feeling a tantalizing nibble on the line while fishing? It\u2019s so hard to resist the temptation to immediately jerk the rod. It\u2019s the same feeling we get when the client brings up a problem that we just know fits right in our sweet spot\u2014it\u2019s tough to resist interjecting a solution on the spot. That\u2019s wrong for several reasons, but the most important is that the client may immediately go on the defensive, because the dynamic of the conversation has shifted from exploring and diagnosing to \u201cselling\u201d.<\/p>\nUnderstand:<\/strong> Clients buy for their reasons, not yours. If you don\u2019t spend enough time in the sales conversation gaining an understanding of their motivations, you run the risk of prescribing an incomplete or wrong solution. Even if it\u2019s the right solution, you may underestimate the value it delivers, which can definitely hurt you in the price negotiations to come.<\/p>\nListen:<\/strong> No rocket science here, of course, but it\u2019s still probably the most-ignored rule in all sales conversations. Paradoxically, it\u2019s often your good qualities that can hurt your listening\u2014you\u2019re enthusiastic about your product; you\u2019re avidly following the list of questions you prepared; you\u2019re eager to show how well-informed and smart you are. Always remember that it\u2019s easy to talk yourself out of a sale, but pretty hard to listen yourself out of one.<\/p>\nEmpower:<\/strong> Pushing, or even just suggesting a solution can seem to be an efficient way of closing on the need, but how many times have you had an \u201cagreement\u201d that led to no sale? By guiding the conversation properly, you can make your solution the client\u2019s idea, which is a great way to turn agreement into commitment. That\u2019s why the most effective sales conversations are those in which the client tells you what you want them to hear.<\/p>\nIn summary, don\u2019t try to dominate the sales conversation; RULE it instead!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Here\u2019s a news flash: we sales professionals don\u2019t actually know everything! Sometimes it\u2019s helpful to infuse new ideas or different perspectives from outside the sales literature and blogosphere, and in that spirit, I would like to share a framework that clinical psychologists use to encourage their clients\u2019 readiness to change. Motivational Interviewing is a method […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7172,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[128,85],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/customerthink.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190219"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/customerthink.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/customerthink.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/customerthink.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7172"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/customerthink.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=190219"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/customerthink.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190219\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/customerthink.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=190219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/customerthink.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=190219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/customerthink.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=190219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}