No matter how experienced you are in sales, there is always going to be conflict. Whether it is with the customer, or within your internal organization; conflict should be expected. However, if you are able to recognize them and resolve them in a short period of time, you help keep that conflict from becoming a much larger issue.
The majority of conflict that is experienced at work is often the result of opposing positions, power struggles, competitiveness, or just the result of someone having a bad day. However, it has been shown that the primary root cause of conflict is either poor communication, or not being able to control one’s emotions. Whatever the cause behind the conflict may be, it is simply not productive to business. To help you understand and resolve conflict, I have listed some helpful information.
Poor communication is the leading cause of conflict. It is often the result of poor information, lack of information, misinformation, or simply no information. To avoid communication problems within your business and with clients, it is important that you communicate in a concise, clear, timely, and accurate manner. This will help reduce the amount of uncertainty and avoid the majority of conflicts.
Our emotions play a large part on how we react to people and situations. When we allow our emotions to drive our decisions, we will often cause conflict. Allowing our emotions to drive our decisions can often lead to the creation of situations that can dramatically affect our future. The best way to get a handle on our emotions and keep them pushing us into an unacceptable manner of action, we simply need to walk away. Take a few minutes to gain your composure and take another look at the situation. You may discover that your initial reaction was over the top, and you can now see the proper way in which to address the situation. Not only will this help you avoid an embarrassing situation, it will also keep you from saying or acting in a way in which could affect your position.
While preventing conflict cannot always be done, you may be able to resolve that conflict before it escalates. This can be done by intervening in a decisive manner which will prevent the conflict from escalating. Dealing with conflict quickly will help prevent it from escalating into a problem that becomes more of a distraction to those involved. When you step in and take control of the situation, it demonstrates to your employees and those involved, that you are not going to put up with that type of behavior. It is not only detrimental to your morale and effectiveness of your business, but it can also damage your reputation.