How to win a fight, when your opponent is much better than you

Sometimes, in martial arts you are facing an opponent, that clearly you should have no chance in winning. He is better in skill, more versatile and even quicker than you. He is even more experienced and has developed into a champion in no time. Your odds aren’t good, but there is still a chance to win with a perfect tactic. What could that be?

In sales, you might meet a person, who has much better knowledge on your business field. She has worked for years and has a great team supporting her. She has bought similar products and services and is highly valued among her colleagues from different companies. How to close a deal, when she clearly knows more than you and really into her business? You can’t afford to go down on price, what other options do you have?

Master knows the solution

My master in martial arts, explained me years ago about a tactic that not so many use in these kind of situations. He told me a story about the best goalkeeper in the world and how to score a goal against him. Often, coaches say that shoot as many times as possible and you will eventually score a goal. If you, as a hobby player, get a chance to shoot against a real pro, for instance, a goalie from NHL, you will not score, even if you get a chance to shoot 100 pucks. He will not make a mistake, because he has trained his whole life and the level his goalkeeping is so high, that by just trying, you will not succeed. Not even, if you try harder.

I was really surprised about how the story was going. I always thought, that you should just  try harder and in the end, you would succeed. He asked me: “what technique would you use?” I answered: “I don’t know”. He continued: “you are right. You don’t know and that is the trick”. Then he explained that against the best opponent, you shouldn’t think about your technique, but make him insecure about his. You should try to dribble, use fake attacks and make all kinds of movements, but not really attack before you have made him nervous. The best fighters (and goalies in his example), need a feeling of winning and if you can challenge that, they become insecure. A goalie with no shots coming, doesn’t have a feeling of winning and gets frustrated. His head will turn against him in the long run and you have to be patient to get to that point.

How to apply the method in sales

In sales, don’t worry about your knowledge, challenge the knowledge of the buyer. Ask good questions and continue the discussion. Make new questions, based on the answers given and push the conversation further. Try to get to the limit of her knowledge and still push further (the questions have to be good and challenging) This will make the buyer more insecure of her knowledge and she will start to think that you know more than she does or at least that you have something that she doesn’t know about. She will end up by asking for your help. That is the right time to offer your solution and she will buy it. Too often, junior sales people start to talk about his solution and not getting the buyer thinking and questioning her knowledge. That kind of sales meeting will not result in sales and the buyer will not start trusting you as a service provider. In business, one way to build trust is to show that you have something that she needs. One way to build this need is to make her question her current solution.

What do you think? Can you pull this off? I have tried it many times in fighting and in sales. Sometimes I have succeeded, but not always. It sounds a lot easier than it is, but if you don’t try this method, you will not win an opponent who is much better than you. What do you got to lose?

To evade, block or counter (Part 2)

Blocking

In traditional martial arts, a lot of training and emphasis is spend on training blocking techniques. These can be trained in forms (alone, without an actual attack), with training partners following set patterns, or in a sparring environment where the movement and attacks are free.

At first, the emphasis is on the outer form and the track of the block, where you will try to imitate your instructor’s movements. You get a feeling of contact and try to build your balance against the attack. Sometimes, the block is more like a hit against the attack and sometimes you try to use the power of the attack to your advantage and move into a better position for your next attack. 

 Block your sales objections

In sales, a block is your answer to the sales objection or a critical question that your customers asks from you. The customer is trying to find your weak spot and see if what you are offering is really solving a problem for her. She might have got insights of your product/service from your competitor, have previous experience of similar solutions or she has been doing a research of information on her own. You have to be prepared for all of these and train at your home dojang (training place) for upcoming attacks.

Training blocking techniques require discipline. You have to have your mind into them or you will not get much out of the training. The form is given to you and you have to follow it and trust your instructor on his expertise. He will try to correct your movement with vague explanations and modify your movement to follow a certain track. With repetition, you will learn to control your body and become quicker to perform the block with better balance. As with everything else, the timing of the block is crucial. Even if everything else is in balance, the form looks great and the track is perfect, you will get hit without mastering the timing of your block. But still, beginners worry too much about the timing and try to come up with excuses of why this time, the timing wasn’t the best. One shouldn’t concentrate too much on the timing in the beginning, because that is more of an inner skill than a physical skill. The timing will come with a lot of repetition and with the development of the physical form of the movement. Perfect timing for a block comes “from the feeling” not from reaction to an attack.

Too few salespeople take the time to train for sales objections properly. Even if you have mastered the particular sales objection last time, it is wise to train for it again. How did we get into that situation? What was the real purpose of that question? Have our competitors found a new approach that challenges our solution and is considered to be better? When you can trust your knowledge and you have readymade proven answers to sales objection, you will be more comfortable in a tougher conversation with your customer. When you have many tested answers to the common sales objections, you can choose the one that fits the best for the situation. The more you prepare yourself with these basic questions and answers, the easier it is for you to keep your concentration on the more important signals, those that will result in making a deal with your customer. Don't spend too much energy on unimportant parts of the sales conversation.

The purpose of the block is to keep you unharmed and improve your position in the fight, moreover to stop the attack before it hits you. The attacker often uses more energy than you with the block. The same goes with a sales conversation. Answering simple sales objections, should be easy for you and you should have practiced the answers before entering the meeting. The more you practice, the better timing and better answers you will provide, when being asked the questions you already know. With this solid foundation, you are more prepared and don’t spend too much energy on the less important questions of the sales conversation Whenever you have time, go through in your head the basic questions your customers have asked you and try to prepare more answers with more versatile approach. Ask from your colleagues and manager, what kind of sales objections have they encountered and how have they answered them. Mastering the basics is the foundation of success.

Read:
Part 1 of to evade, block or counter