Schuetz

Aggressive sales people can be difficult to deal with and many people find it hard to work effectively with them. Realising that it is the behaviour that's causing this along with circumstances can help you not take things personally and deal more effectively with them.

Follow these steps to help you deal effectively with an aggressive sales person.

1. Identify what is actually happening. What is the situation, behaviour or action contributing to the difficulty? What pressures are they under? Does everyone else have the same issues? Is it you/your company that are unwittingly contributing to the problem? Disassociate the behaviour from the person as much as you can. This will allow you not to take it personally and deal with it objectively which in turn can help take away any anxiety that you have.

If the person is being unreasonable after assessing the above, are there other people within the organisation who have the decision-making ability? Alternatively are you friendly with anyone who can help you deal with this person look at your resources and use them.

2. Stop wishing that the person would be different. Accept them for what they are and that they are showing aggression for whatever reason and move on (this depends on the severity of the aggression). This doesnt mean you cannot influence a change in their ways but there is little point in wasting time trying at this stage.

3. Look at it objectively. Am I this way to anyone? Can you identify with it If so, how best would it be to tackle you in this situation. Have you used a strategy in the past that could be used here? Use this time to identify what you want to happen here.

4. Plan your strategy. Have the end result in mind. Take time to think each step through and try and anticipate all possible outcomes. What is it you want to achieve? Always have this in mind and work your steps backwards to create the strategy to achieve this.

5. Put your plan into action. What do you need to be in place to achieve it? This is not about win at all costs you may need to give in on certain points to get what you want.

6. Assess how it went and learn from it. What worked well? What could have worked better?

Often aggressive people give more away than passive and you can gain vital information from them that can help give YOU the vital balance of power.

Marc Lockley has spent 20 years in UK National Press media sales most of which at senior levels. Now he has developed a coaching practice that centres around two main areas: negotiation and leadership.

He offers negotiation coaching both in business and your home life. Think of how much you could save and make negotiating the sale and purchase of your own house for example?

He offers coaching that truly develops your style, talents and skills. It is tailored to your requirements to help you get the best out of deals.

If you would like to find out more on how coaching can help you or your business then email marc@lockleyassociates.co.uk or look at his website http://www.lockleyassociates.co.uk