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How to Handle Difficult Financial Seminar Participants |
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Every successful salesperson has the skill to gain and maintain control of the sales process. Seminar selling requires the same skill. Difficult participants can take control of your seminar and rob you of your objectives. To avoid losing control, it is important to familiarize yourself with a few simple, yet powerful techniques and scripts.
Difficult participants at financial seminars fall into a few categories. Here are the most common types of troublemakers and techniques for minimizing their negative effects.
The Loudmouth: A supporter who is interested in your program and is overly zealous or someone who really doesn’t care about you and is mostly interested in hearing his or her own voice.
In both cases the end result is the same – your program will be dominated, disturbed and detoured. Here are the primary scenarios you must contend with and a solution for each.
Scenario: Loudmouth raises hand and rambles on.
Solution: After a few moments ask, “What is your question?” or “What is your main point?” Or say, “I appreciate your comments and insights, but I’d also like to hear from some of the others here today.”
Scenario: Loudmouth asks vague questions or ones that are off the topic.
Solution: Say, “That’s a good question, but in order to cover all the material in our allotted time, I’d like to stick to our topic.” Or say, “Good question, but how does it relate to our topic?” Or, “You are raising some interesting issues. They’re a little off the material we are covering, but perhaps we can talk more at the break.”
Scenario: Loudmouth raises hand continually every few minutes.
Solution: Avoid looking in the direction of the loudmouth.
The Know-It-All: At every financial seminar a majority of your participants will have some degree of familiarity with the topic. Participants might get their information from personal contacts or as a result of attending similar seminars. The know-it-all feels compelled to share his viewpoint every step of the way.
Scenario: The know-it-all repeatedly questions the validity or correctness of your information.
Solution 1: Prepare yourself with facts, figures, quotes and other expert testimony. After you have delivered your seminar a few times, you will be better equipped to handle this situation. You’ll become more familiar with the areas likely to arouse opposing viewpoints. Many times a know-it-all question is a one-shot deal. Then there are questions that recur from seminar to seminar. Whatever the case, don’t be afraid to say, “I don’t know,” and then move on with your seminar material.
Another Solution: If you know there will be someone with an extensive background on your topic, speak with them before you begin. Acknowledge their expertise, experience, or credentials, and ask this person for his support. In this way you can transform an enemy into an ally. Using this technique, the know-it-all will tend to be supportive instead disagreeable.
The Cross-Talker: Someone who is attending your seminar with an associate, is seated next to someone they know or has made a new friend at your seminar. In some cases the cross-talker will be commenting negatively to a neighbor but, in many cases, he is making editorial comments.
The cross-talker is a distraction. This person will be competition to you and, in most cases, will negatively influence the quality of the seminar experience for those sitting near them.
Scenario: A steady stream of whispering is emanating from the cross-talker.
Solution: Walk up to close to the cross-talker and make eye contact.
Another Solution: Stop talking and let the dead silence echo in the room.
Another Solution: Deal with it head on and say, “Excuse me, I’d like to ask you to refrain from crosstalk. It can disturb those around you and affect their experience. Out of respect for your fellow participants, please share with your colleagues at the break or when we are finished.”
The Silent One: Someone observed sitting with their arms crossed with a blank stare, doodling incessantly, shaking their head, or fidgeting in their chair. Non-verbal behavior will communicate disinterest in one form or another.
The silent one can subtlety sabotage your efforts to gain participation and maintain the attention of the rest of your audience. The behavior of this person will negatively affect those around him or her.
Scenario: Participant is not involved in your presentation.
Solution: The best technique is to call on this person by name and ask an open-ended question, ask for his or her opinion, or ask for his or her direct input in some way.
Another Solution: Speak with the silent one at the break. Find out exactly what is going on and develop a strategy that will gain his or her involvement.
Try to find some way you can be of service to the participant. At this point, the silent one might decide to leave of his or her own accord, realizing being there is a waste of time.
The Hostile One: There can be lots of reasons for someone to be hostile. In most cases the hostile person is either temporarily under the weather or it is this person’s normal disposition. In most cases, if you have behaved responsibly, you have done little to create the hostile participant. Likewise, there is little you can do to make this person happy.
Your objective in handling the hostile participant is to defuse the negatively and prevent the hostile one from taking control of your seminar. No matter what, do not lose your cool. You will lose the support of your audience if you do.
Scenario: The hostile one is belligerent about something you’ve said.
Solution: Get agreement on some larger concept of your presentation. Say, “Although we disagree on some details, I’m sure you’ll agree that – is true.
Another Solution: If you see a pattern of this behavior right from the start, ask for a commitment from the audience. Before you’ve gone very far, say to the audience, “I’d like you to keep an open mind and hold your comments or questions till the end when I would be happy to answer them.”
If the hostile one tries to interrupt after you have said this, remind the hostile one of the verbal contract that was agreed to earlier. At this point, you’ll probably have the audience on your side.
You will undoubtedly become more familiar with each of these common seminar participant types. Your job is to be prepared with the specific strategies, techniques and scripts to keep the troublemakers in check. After using these techniques and scripts a few times they’ll become much easier to apply as needed.
Remember, if you lose control of your audience, you lose control of the sale.
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