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Rick Roberge

Am I Passive-Aggressive?

This entry was posted on 1/28/2007 8:04 PM and is filed under uncategorized.

I recently met with a prospect that didn't like my approach to his inability to make a decision. His suggestion was that I exhibited passive-aggressive behavior. Because he's much smarter than average folks like me, I decided to do some research. I went to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passive-aggressive and found this.

There are certain behaviors that help identify passive-aggressive behavior. ^[2]

Ambiguity
Avoiding responsibility by claiming forgetfulness
Blaming others
Chronic lateness and forgetfulness
Complaining
Does not express hostility or anger openly
Fear of authority
Fear of competition
Fear of dependency
Fear of intimacy
Fosters chaos
Intentional inefficiency
Making excuses and lying
Obstructionism
Procrastination
Resentment
Resists suggestions from others
Sarcasm
Sullenness

Is that me? or was he thinking of something else?

Oh well. You can't do business with everybody and in cases like this....it's a good thing.

Have a great week!

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Comments

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1/29/2007 12:24 AM noah kagan wrote:
Exactly true. You have to cut bad clients right away. Something that takes awhile to get use to.
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1. 1/29/2007 8:46 AM Rick Roberge wrote:
  Actually, Noah, it's much better to never let them get to be clients and you're right. Sometimes it is difficult to turn business away. Trust your gut.
  Reply to this
1/29/2007 10:11 AM John Newland wrote:
Dave Kurlan recommended you to me. I loved todays post - isn't it great the way that prospects project their issues onto the salesguy? Thanks.

ps I blog on sales at http://johnonsales.terapad.com/
Reply to this
1. 1/29/2007 10:32 AM Rick Roberge wrote:
  I couldn't have said it better myself. I'll check out your blog tonight.
  Reply to this
1/29/2007 2:52 PM AdamD wrote:
To be passive aggressive, at least in today's vernacular, just means to speak aggressively (such as trying to convince someone of something) in a passive manner (so they don't boot you to the curb).

Isn't that really what sales is?
Reply to this
1. 1/29/2007 4:20 PM Rick Roberge wrote:
  Speak aggressively in a passive manner or speak passively in an aggressive manner? Or are we using aggressive when we actually mean assertive?
  Reply to this
1/31/2007 11:29 PM Dave Kurlan wrote:
Prospects do this. Stupid Human Tricks. They don't take responsibility for their inability to deal with their own problems and when you confront them they make up really cool sounding names to make it the salesperson's problem.
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