By Anders Christian Hjort

I just attended a great summit at Presidents Institute in Copenhagen this week where professor Tim Morris from Saïd Business School shared his research and paradigm on how CEOs deal with fear, doubt and uncertainty before making big decisions. In other words how they can find comfort in the uncomfortable.

In relation to the on going research we do around sales and decision making at Huthwaite International, we call this psychological stage in the decision making process for an individual the Resolutions of Concerns stage, the last stage in the buying process, where concerns and consequences are faced and dealt with by top decision makers. The risk assessment stage.

I find that Tim Morris insights fit well with sales executives too, when they go through making their own decision with clients and prospects. Many sales people I observe commit Hubris by being fearlessly selling and not preparing, thus not knowing what their clients and prospects actual needs and how they will benefit from solving their problems.

Also Myopia strikes even when fearless sales people think they know all, not challenging their assumptions, if what they know is actually facts, or just fiction, because they had only one source of information at the prospect.

High performance Sales Executives benefit from knowing that this goes for buyers as well. The best sales executives help buyers proactively to see this and have candid personal conversations that help them solve these concerns, becoming trusted advisors.

You will find the model and insights summarised in the above paradigm and this link below will take you into more details about professor Tim Morris research.