Collaborative sales calls for a coaching style of enquiry that exposes insight into a client’s business environment. The genuine curiosity in enquiry and probing into the client’s business, uncovering before unexplored challenges opens a world of possibility for value creation. Having earned the right and being placed in a position by the client to challenge their thinking is potentially a cause for discomfort and dissonance. The prospect of change, challenging the status quo, naturally brings resistance to the fore. If the challenge comes as a complete surprise to the client and is bought about to challenge conventional, staid thinking, the dissonance is greater.

Yet, change is required for growth and development. It is the responsibility of the collaborative sales professional to create and then control cognitive dissonance – that feeling of uncomfortable inner tension that comes from holding two conflicting thoughts in the mind at the same time or in the presence…