CAVEAT: This is geared less toward sales and more toward partnerships.
Often, we are required to develop partnerships with organizations and people who are less than receptive to our message. Even if we are passionate about what we are doing, we sometimes are unable to convince people to partner with us.
As part of my community engagement work, I have attempted to partner with several large religious organizations. In one instance, I was specifically told by the organization’s leader they would not be working on this project…nothing personal, but the organization was making a stand against the government’s involvement in this matter.
Being shutdown or rejected like this is difficult. I left this interaction with questions about how to better approach the situation. I spent some time reviewing over other, previous interactions which started out similarly. And, I feel the following points were very helpful to me to engage with unreceptive or hostile audiences:
Actively listen to their viewpoint and objections. I often have a tendency to have my response or rebuttal already formed prior to the other person even ending their statement. This is the wrong approach. This is something that I am actively working on—being a better active listener. I need to ingest and digest the other person’s points of view before continuing to develop a relationship. I need to listen to their full statement before I attempt to counteract it.
Meet them where they are physically and mentally. Physically, it is important for me to show that I am willing to go wherever they want to meet — to break down the tradition of meeting halfway or having the other person come to me. This go-to-them attitude shows that I respect their time so much I will make a personal sacrifice to meet them.
From a mental standpoint, meeting them where they are means for me to empathize with their position. Often, I find myself taking a more indignant position—I know that I am right because I am right. Or, I know I am right because this is how it is going to eventually be. In my time with the FBI, I had this mentality in certain instances. I would participate in joint projects and activities with my colleagues from other agencies, but I knew when things “got real”, we (the FBI) would probably take over and control the environment. After all, we were the feds.
Be open to change or modification. While we all have standards to adhere to, it is important that we know the rules and protocols well enough that we can change or modify to meet their needs. As a former Bible school student, I learned about missionary work being done in South America. Many, effective, missionaries would learn about the indigenous cultural traditions and then find a way to marry up the Gospel with the local traditions. There were times, obviously, this didn’t work. But, it is important, especially when dealing with an unreceptive audience, to attempt this method as best as possible.
Be patient. One of my favorite expressions is “it’s not a sprint, it is a marathon.” This is important for how view our progress with these audiences. We should realize that we may not be able to immediately change or sell them to our cause. We should try to focus on the little wins we make along the way.
I’ve used this expression before, but instead of viewing this process like ‘The Game of Life’, we should view it as ‘Monopoly.’ We should realize there are going to be many cycles we make around the board before we get to a stage of having some comfort or control in the environment.
Like in the game Monopoly, there are always going to be times in which we have to venture into other peoples’ territories. This can be scary, but if we “actively listen to their viewpoint and objections,” “meet them where they are,” “be open to change or modification,” and “be patient,” then we will be more successful in our journey.
Read the original here: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/engaging-unreceptive-hostile-audience-darin-challacombe