Be positive and get an extra mile

Me and my competitors were in meeting with customer, off course this customer initiated meeting.

Meeting room was full of people and fortunately it was not divided into groups and was just down to the fact that some people in room were meeting for first time, in short no natural groups were formed in the room.

Meeting was all about bringing change in the way we work, new tool is being introduced.

First half an hour was spent in the introductions and I could see that natural linkage was made among people from my company and competitors.

Over period of meeting few thoughts emerged , some positive and some negative. customer was getting pleased as soon as some support is expressed and visa versa.

During break customer was making individual conversation to dig into negative points presented during the meeting, just to ensure that he understands the rational behind the resistance. He used this information in the second half of the meeting either as action points or comments to note.

At the end of the meeting I could see that people who opposed most to the change were not seen as part of the picture where as people to presented positive thoughts with details of concerns were seen as supporter of the change.

for example

Negative person : we have been though such change in past and it did not worked so i doubt it will work this time.

Positive person : this change should bring good results as i see that the learning from past is implemented here and one or two more improvements should make this successful.

You will observe that both are pointing to past failures in different way. The customer is also aware of past failure but this time he is looking for more support for this initiative naturally he will lean toward positive person to ensure the success.

In gist , be supportive at the same time do not fail to point to improvement it may require to make it success story.