Imagine you turned up at your local supermarket to return a chicken you bought the previous day which, when you unwrapped it to cook you discovered it was not fit to eat.
Consider 3 possible scenarios:
- You are given a replacement, without any questions being asked.
- You’re asked for a receipt. When you say that you don’t have one they go to find a manager. The manager explains that as chickens are perishable, and you don’t have a receipt, they can’t offer a replacement or a refund. You’re furious but the manager can only apologise.
- As in the previous scenario except you wait for 10 minutes and the manager is nowhere to be seen. In frustration, you leave without speaking to anyone.
Scenario 1 is obviously preferable – problem solved quickly.
The last two cases you don’t get a refund or a new chicken. No good outcome for you, but which one of these unsatisfactory outcomes is easier to live with?
In scenario 2 you have at least had the opportunity to talk it through, even release a bit of frustration and you come away with a reason albeit one that is very annoying – I know this from personal experience! I have even ended up feeling sorry for the hapless manager who has had to weather my frustration.
The truth is that objection handling and conflict management will not always produce a fairy tale ending. Yet to some degree the process itself can help people accept outcomes they didn’t want or even find alternative compromises that ease and diminish the conflict.
And the lesson?
It is not just the result that matters – the process has real value, too.
Very best!
David Solomon
Managing Director, Sun and Moon Training
@SunMoonDavid