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When you want to remove someone’s concerns about what you’re planning to do

I was held up at airport security last week, by one of the sweetest things I’ve ever seen.

A small girl in front of me – I guess she was four or five – was devastated that someone wanted to take her Disney Princess Bag from her. She was distraught: tears, screaming . . . the works.

Her parents reassured her that the bag was just being x-rayed and she’d get it back immediately. But she wasn’t buying that. Life had lost all meaning if someone took her bag from her.

After a couple of minutes (I’m sure it felt longer to them), Modern Parenting was replaced by Victorian Parenting, and her Dad snatched the bag and whisked it through security. The girl got the bag back 10 seconds later, but I doubt her vocal cords – or my ears – will ever recover.

You see, sometimes people are concerned about things that don’t worry you. Unlike this girl, they won’t burst into tears about it, but they will say things like “it’s too expensive”, “we have other priorities”, “I’m not sure you’re experienced enough”, “we’ve no time”, “there’s no resource”. Even though you might not agree, if they think it’s an issue, it is one.

When people have concerns, you have three options:

1. They raise the concern. Just like the girl did about her bag, they might do this in a distressed way. Or at the wrong time. Either way, this puts you on the defensive. Not good.
2. Neither of you raises it. This is by far the worst. Imagine you’re selling something and your customer thinks it’s too expensive – if it goes unsaid, they just won’t buy. Again, not good.
3. You raise it. Weird though it sounds, this is the best option, because the others bring bigger problems.

To raise, and then remove, people’s concerns, there are four steps:

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Note: you have to give a persuasive response to their concern. The alternative – “I know you think it’s expensive . . . and it is” – is just not very good! The easiest way to find your best response is to think of a few, and then select the best. For instance, responses to concerns about cost could include:

  • We’ve agreed that this is worth $1 million if it goes well, and will only cost $20,000. That’s a Return On Investment of over 50/1. I know it’s not easy to find the $20,000, but we have to. We need to take advantage of opportunities like this.
  • Which other budget can we use to pay for it?
  • Who can we ask to sponsor this?
  • We currently run 100 events a year, each costing around $10,000. Can’t we just do 98, and use the freed-up $20,000 to pay for this?
  • Shall we stagger the payment?
  • Should I go back to the supplier, and ask them to change the payment terms?
  • I can free up $10,000 from my budget. Please could you match this figure from yours?

Which is best? I don’t know – it depends on lots of factors. But having these seven – and I’m sure you could find seven more – helps you find one that works.

In fact, while we’re talking about price, here’s a question for you:

Do you think $2,000 is expensive?

I imagine you’d answer “I’ve no idea. It depends what I’m buying. It’s a lot for a sandwich, but a pretty good price for a new Bentley.”

Discussing price when you don’t know what you’re buying is meaningless. How can you know if it’s a good deal or not?

It’s the same when you’re selling something that has a price to it. This means that, to reduce people’s pricing objections, don’t mention price until they’re 100% clear what they’re “buying”.

Of course, they’ll often ask “how much is it?” before you’re ready to say. And, if you tell them early like this, they’ll say it’s too expensive and you’ll have to overcome loads of needless objections. So instead say: “I’ve no idea yet. It depends what you want. Let me ask you a few quick questions so I can see how I can best help. Then I’ll be able to tell you the exact cost.”

A Step-By-Step Guide, To Make This Easy To Do

1. Identify all their possible concerns – by asking them, asking others, using your experience and so on.
2. Think of 3–4 responses to each. Some people find a table helps them do this:

c53-fig-5003

3. Decide which 1–2 concerns you need to raise. These will be the ones you know they’re most worried about. It’s best not to do them all – “And the 71st thing you’re no doubt dreading is . . .”.
4. For those you do include, create your script using the four steps “introduce, state, remove, confirm”.
5. Practice saying it, until it feels natural.
6. Rehearse your responses to the concerns you’re not including, so you handle the Q&A well.

A Final Thought

It can be hard to remove people’s worries – as the young girl in Manchester Airport will testify – but you must do all you can to do so. It’s the only way to get things sorted.

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