Chapter 10: Tool number 10: move to the side

Often in selling, and in communication in general, people can get very bogged down with issues that get in the way of what they are really trying to say. People will often have a conversation about one thing, but their intended messages are not really getting through because the listener is actually upset about something else.

Tool number 10 is a way of getting the rubbish out of the way so that new communication can take place. When existing frustrations and past situations are in the way, you have to move them to the side if you are going to have fresh communication that can move the relationship to the next level.

How move to the side works

Let me make this come alive. Imagine a scenario where a wife is angry with her husband because of something that he said at a party the night before. The next day he walks up to her and starts talking about something that frustrated him last week. This conversation will blow up into an argument very quickly because she will be interpreting everything he says about his frustration last week through the anger she has from what he said at the party last night.

The same kind of situation happens in business and selling all the time. A salesperson will be trying to convince a customer about how a new product that they are selling will make a significant change to that client’s business. However, because the salesperson’s company was late with ...

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