For a long time I have talked about becoming conscious of what’s going on in the minds of the people you’re communicating with – what attitudes, objections, concerns, questions, prejudices might people have towards what you’re saying.
It seems to me that you must always be respectful of people’s positions – to work out how their response is the logical one bearing in mind the experiences they have had and the data they possess.
[Update - The initial way I described the following was an oversimplification - and I knew it - Sharon Drew gave me here most current description of this point, so I've updated it - her words are in italics, just to be totally clear)
The book that’s rocking my world at the moment (there’s always one) is Sharon Drew Morgen‘s Selling With Integrity. In it she posits a totally respectful way of selling – looking at the sales person (and that’s you, whether you think it is or not) as the servant of the buyer (of your product, your ideas, your recommendations). Their (your, our) job is to manage the internal, off line decisions they need to make to help them all buy in to a new solution, or to change.
