In the world of sales the better you perform, the bigger your profits are. This is a great motivator, but invariably there are going to be a few scuffles in the competition to be No. 1 salesperson. We look at how to overcome conflict with a colleague or boss and still be top of your game.
Sales professionals naturally have the competitive edge, and there are broadly two types of sales people; those who will walk over anyone to reach their target and those who will pull together as a team to reach a common business goal.
“People are striving to be at the top of the leader board or be the top dog if you like, each month or each quarter or each year, and sometimes you do get a bit of aggression or backhandedness,” said Arron Taylor, business development manager at Pareto.
“For instance, you have a year-end coming up and you have two sales people driving to become salesperson of the year, often there is conflict with last-minute deals being bagged or going under the radar then on the last day of the year, somebody pulls out a deal where they win that accolade,” said Arron.
Whether it is rivalry or simply a clash of personality, if you find yourself in a situation where you have conflict with a colleague or boss, your immediate reaction may be one of three things; to fight, shout and lose your temper; ignore the problem and hope it goes away; or become passive with indecision about what to do. But the best thing you can do to diffuse and resolve a grievance with someone is to face it.
Career Coach Suzie Sharp has worked with a lot of sales teams and their competitive edge leads them into quite a lot of conflict. Her No. 1 piece of advice is always to communicate. “Talk things through, get the reasons from both sides and resolve to understand each other and the situation better next time,” said Suzie.
“Also, when anything happens which makes an individual feel uncomfortable, simply say to the other person (as non-confrontationally as possible) ‘when you did/said/acted that way, it made me feel uncomfortable/upset/angry/irritated. Can we talk about it? Because I’d rather it didn’t happen again.’
“Not communicating makes matters worse, builds the tension, keeps matters on edge. Talking it through (and persisting in talking about it if it happens again) calmly and without sarcasm/irritation/blame/tears/shouting will work every time,” said Suzie.
It is this openness and ‘emotional intelligence’ that will diffuse a conflict and help work past it. Arron goes on to say it is also about understanding what motivates people, whether you are a sales team leader or whether you need to call on the expertise of your colleagues to help you sell a product or service to a client.
“Often you tend to find that most salespeople are ‘emotional animals’ and often fall into one of four types of personality: amiable, extrovert, pragmatist or analytical. And whether you are dealing an internal or external customer, good sales people should be able to mirror those personalities to achieve a win-win outcome.”
In the event that the conflict cannot be resolved with an informal quiet word, be it with a colleague or a boss, a mediator can be brought in to help find an outcome suitable for both parties. This may be a person in management, or someone in HR. Either way it is important to put all your cards on the table and be upfront and honest.
“Don’t put your head in the sand, because those grievances will come back and bite you,” advised Arron. “Openness and honesty is always the best policy and nip it in the bud; don’t let things squander and start to snowball because they will only become worse.”
It is also helpful to keep a ‘paper trail’ of events and document incidents, phone calls or your side of the argument in emails. These will help assert your case and validate your point of view with hard evidence. Again this is about transparency and communication.
Don’t be afraid to approach your boss if you have a grievance with them or with a colleague. It is in their best interest to help you for the health of their business. Nor do they want to suffer staff casualties.
From a sales leader point of view, motivating salespeople through tough times is important and, as well as keeping sales targets achievable, sales managers have a responsibility to foster a collaborative team by helping staff stay rational and look at the greater good, rather than pit them against each other to make the biggest sale.
“You got to be coercive and collaborative as a sales unit. If you have a maverick that is looking after No. 1 and is upsetting people, invariably they will fall on their sword, because they need the people around them to support them and help them achieve and deliver to customers. It doesn’t make good business sense as a business person to forge enemies,” said Arron.
“It’s all about attitude and integrity, but if you do have conflict as sales leader you need to isolate it. If somebody has a grievance, it’s never a good idea to have an open discussion in front of peers. You need to take them out of that environment, you need to address, acknowledge and action – the ‘3 As’ – to get a win-win outcome. If you have a conflict that is very open and visual in front of a wider group, then negativity breeds negativity.”
For sales professionals, the road to the top is not without competition and conflict along the way, but there are big rewards on offer for those who can communicate effectively and work together to strive for success.
