Anyone in Law enforcement will tell you that the most dangerous situation they can encounter is interfering in a domestic squabble. They approach such situations with extreme caution.
In sales, we can run in to the same type of situation. While it may not be life-threatening like a domestic quarrel, how we handle ourselves could easily make the difference between weathering the storm rather than losing an account. Here is an example:
Several years ago I was coaching one of my clients and she shared a dilemma she was facing with one of her biggest clients. The company had hired someone to do some of the work that Jill (my client) was doing. The problem was this: the new hire (we’ll call her Hazel) felt threatened by Jill. Because of this, Hazel did everything she could to make Jill look bad. Hazel would not respond to Jill’s emails and would say things to her boss about Jill that were both untrue and unfair. Jill was enraged. She could not wait to talk to the boss and set the record straight about Hazel.
Jill and I discussed strategy. She decided to back off and keep her cool. She graciously disengaged from the company for a while. About 1 1/2 years later, Jill got a call from the company boss. Hazel had wreaked havoc on their culture and they finally had to fire her. They hired Jill back. It wasn’t long before she was doing more business with her old client that ever before. She freely admits that if she engaged in the Hazel crossfire, she would have lost the client.
The lesson to be learned was stated by Dale Carnegie many decades ago: “Always avoid the acute angle.” Rise above “domestic quarrels” and do not engage.
