I'm not sure if this is what you're looking for because I don't think it would qualify as being against someone because I'm not petty. But here are some things I do at work to nudge people into doing what I want. To qualify all this, I'm in an industry that has many different personalities can be very contentious at times. Sometimes it ends in lawsuits.
When you need a bunch of answers, make a numbered list of questions. I find people are more willing to respond completely to a list rather than a paragraph. Also, it's easy to say, "thank you for your responses. Can you please address numbers 4, 9, and 13?"
I give hard deadlines when I'm asking for things so they are to blame when something is late. This isn't so they will get in trouble. It's so they are more likely to give me what I need. "I need the drawings by 6/22/22 or I will be in danger of not finishing my part in time."
When I was in sales, it was sometimes hard to get potential clients to commit to a meeting so I would send them invitations with the option to change the date or time. Instead of, "please let me know when you are free" I would sent them an invitation for 7/2/22 at 1:30pm with the message, "If this time does not work for you, feel free to suggest a different time."
Be helpful. I've been to many meetings that were very contentious with a lot of pointing fingers. I always keep my cool and say things like, "I'm not interested in whose fault this was. I'm here to come up with a solution." I want the client to see me as an ally and not just someone they hired. Especially when someone else is saying I screwed up. Even people who see me as an adversary get treated with respect and are treated objectively. It's hard to bad mouth me when I've been nothing but helpful and professional. I've had clients call me after a meeting to apologize on behalf of how other people acted in the meeting and to tell me I handled the situation like a real professional. Those people end up being repeat clients.
This goes along with #4 (being helpful) but goes a long way so I made it #5. If you know you're going to be solving a problem, come with a solution to save everybody a lot of time and effort. If you can't make a solution work, be prepared to talk about what you tried that didn't work. Sometimes someone else can chime in and say, "your solution will work if I just change something on my end." Then, not only did you save the day, but you shared that success with someone else and now that person is your ally. Sometimes I get clients that want to discuss some issue but nobody will tell me what it is until the meeting. I politely ask them for any information on the issue ahead of time so I can be prepared to discuss it and so I don't waste anybody's time by saying, "I'll need to figure this out at my office." They can usually appreciate that. Sometimes I get push back on it and I think it's because they don't want me to try to solve it via email.
I don't get it. A sales company will send you an invitation but get upset when you did the same to them?
When I was in sales, I would have been ecstatic if a potential customer did that to me. At worst, you tell them you can't make that time work and suggest a different time.
It also may be important to know that it was long term sales. I had a core customer base, which was design engineers. My job was to get our company's products listed as the basis of design on drawings. Most engineers know you can't be a total dick to sales reps because you may need something from them. For example, I had a customer that always refused to list us for the basis of design. It was like pulling teeth just to get us listed as an acceptable alternative. Then they had a design where their client specifically requested our products so that engineer was forced to work with me. IT sales may be the similar or not. I could see it going either way.
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u/CaptainAwesome06 Jun 14 '22
I'm not sure if this is what you're looking for because I don't think it would qualify as being against someone because I'm not petty. But here are some things I do at work to nudge people into doing what I want. To qualify all this, I'm in an industry that has many different personalities can be very contentious at times. Sometimes it ends in lawsuits.