Maybe the longest title of any blog I’ve written, but this thought has been on my mind a lot lately as the schedule of meetings has picked back up and we are seeing more new prospects than we have all year. The great thing about what I get to do for my career is that everyone has an opinion. When you think about an ad you see or something that stimulates interest, you either have a favorable liking to it or you don’t like it at all. That is what makes everybody an expert in the field I’m in – they think that their opinions matter.
Not to sound like I have too much of an ego, but I have been working in the same area for 18 years and have a pretty damn good idea of what will work and what will not work. But you never get a new account or win that many friends if you go around all the time when someone second-guesses you or questions you by blatantly calling them out. You have to develop a subtle art for letting people be wrong and still getting the outcome that you want.
If it sounds easy, let me correct you in the most eloquent and amazing way (see what I just did there). But, you have to be able to use your distinct knowledge of the topic at hand to get your point across and get your way, even if it takes more of your time to work on a person. In my experience, nobody likes to be wrong about something, but very few people are confident enough in what they do to do it with such conviction that it will be successful.
There is an art to being able to be subtle enough to tell people that they are wrong and confident enough to do what you do and know that it will be successful. Part of the art is having the diligence to make so many attempts to prove your point or get your way that you eventually tire the other party out completely and boom…. you’ve won.
Many things in business are a battle. A battle against competition, against naysayers, against people who don’t believe or are just envious. But to win the battle, you have to be relentless in your ability to let people think they may be getting their way even when they are not.