Disrupting Their Dislike...
Channeling Mixed Emotions
Getting to Yes...Now
Kevin Hogan
What happens if you sense that dislike is their response?
Address it immediately so that the pendulum can swing back in the other direction.
KEYPOINT: Prior to the dislike judgment and when only CONSIDERING the negative/dislike, interject a few questions about irrelevant issues (Who won the game? How are the kids?). This is almost always enough to shut the door to dislike and open the door back up to a possible "yes" or making a sale!
More interesting is that when presented with "neutral" products, services or even people, the bias is to feel positive toward what is presented. And THEN it takes something to get the person thinking about bad things, drawbacks, etc.
And that's important, too.
When people are presented with a "neutral" product and asked, "How much do you dislike this?"...they do indeed go down that road. Same product, similar group and this question: "How much do you like this?"...and the answer is typically the opposite.
Framing is everything....yes?
Of course...
Framing ISN'T EVERYTHING is it?
Of course not...
Whooooa...that was cool. Framing is IMPORTANT?
Of course...
(Cool huh? See how your mind followed all those tracks agreeably?)
It takes LONGER to determine that someone does NOT like a neutral product than it does for someone to say, "I like it." "I like it," comes quickly to mind and this is one reason salespeople "miss" so many sales. They have the product sold and then they start to tell the customer all the benefits and features.
You know what?
Shut up.
I confess, I prepared a big module about this crucial selling area exclusively for Influence: Boot Camp but I'm going to give you a few keypoints below!
Paul Herr (Leeds) and Christine Leeds (Skidmore) (2005) have done a superb job of assembling and completing much of the research I talk about below, so let's give credit where credit is due!
A) "Positive" and "negative" emotions are NOT opposites. Both positive AND negative emotions can and often are held at the same time toward a person, idea or object. Emotions aren't really positive or negative...they are reactions to internal and external stimuli. That's pretty much it...
POINT: Just because someone expresses a negative feeling or thought about your product in NO WAY means that they won't want to buy it. Just because it's the wrong color or too expensive or doesn't have a better zoom lens or isn't as good in low light...does NOT mean they are going to say "no."
"The "like" and "dislike" feelings are in no way mutually exclusive of each other!
You can hate the car mechanic but you appreciate the good job he's doing on your car. You can feel good AND bad about owning your new car.
You can love your spouse but dislike a lot of things about that person.
