How To Deal With Objections To Company Coaching
You have created a wonderful business case – defend it now
Defending your corporate training initiatives against objections is one of the most important battles of your career. It happens all the time in the life of L&D professionals. You have designed an amazing training initiative, you have all of your training goals covered, but then you have to face the leaders of your organization. These leaders are not just going to stop you. They will challenge and scrutinize every part of your presentation, trying to compromise and suggesting faster and cheaper alternatives. But the most important thing to remember here is that this is their job.
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Business learning workbook for modern learning
Learn how to create and defend your business case for modern learning and make your training program a success!
Nobody wants a training initiative to be more successful than the leaders of your organization. However, before funding your initiative (and your own career as well), you need to be absolutely sure that you know what you are doing. Even what you do will have results. The main job of shareholders is to ensure that the organization is profitable over the long term, and that is exactly what they will do. However, don’t let this discourage you. As long as your training initiative makes sense, you can follow these handy tips and handle any objections politely and professionally.
6 Techniques You Can Use to Handle Objections to Your Corporate Training Initiative
When presenting a business case to stakeholders, you need to be prepared to hear the word “no”. When you come up with a clear argument for your modern learning strategy, you should anticipate your stakeholders’ concerns and be ready to respond to their objections.
1. Use gratitude
It pays to be polite. Show your appreciation for stakeholders when stakeholders share their concerns about investing in modern learning, and take this opportunity to learn more about how they are feeling. Remember that an objection is not the end of a discussion, but a place where you can start a discussion.
2. Empathize
Showing empathy is key to creating common ground. Don’t be combative. Acknowledge the validity of your stakeholders’ concerns about investing in modern learning and express your understanding of their position and perspective.
3. Discover
Once you’ve found common ground with your stakeholders, go deeper to discover the motivation behind their decision to object to investing in modern learning. Avoid yes or no questions for the richest answers.
4. Save your position
Use third party evidence or other evidence to support the business case. Share stories about modern learning success. Facts, examples, and use cases are important elements that you can use to support your case. This is always a great way to deal with objections to your company training initiative.
5. Ask, check, confirm
It can take many questions to finally determine the root cause of a stakeholder’s objection. Ask as many questions as you need to understand exactly why the stakeholder is against investing in modern learning.
6. Display value
To justify an investment in modern learning, you need to help your stakeholders understand what your current learning and development program is costing your company and the benefits of your proposed modern learning program.
Conclusion
Dealing with objections to your corporate training initiative is only a battle, but an entire war to be won. Download the Modern Learning Business Case Workbook e-book and learn everything you need to know about the business aspect of your L&D program. It is a valuable asset that is filled to the brim with resources to aid your case and your learning career.
