Let’s go back to basics…. CUSP! And so it goes….
CARE greatly,
UNDERSTAND deeply,
SERVE endlessly, with
PURPOSE!
Now, let’s dive into one very deep aspect of it all…. To SERVE!
Let’s start off with a few of the greatest quotes of all time on this topic. Notice the powerhouse names taking these positions.
“The essence of life is to serve others and do good.” – Aristotle
“The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.” – Mahatma Ghandi
“Serving others prepares you to lead others.” – Jim George
“I don’t know what your destiny will be, but one thing I do know: the only ones among you will be really happy are those who have sought and found how to serve.” – Albert Schwietzer
“Only a life lived in the service to others is worth living.” – Albert Einstein
“Service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on earth.” – Muhammad Ali
Great variations on the theme of serving others. And now let’s take it a bit further down the CUSP trail. In that sense we say…SERVE endlessly. That is a key to making this entire “servant selling” concept work. And behind that is one really huge caveat. Not only do we start our client engagement with the objective of serving them to solve their needs, but we continue that theme throughout the entire engagement, project by project, challenge by challenge, beginning to end.
And we must do so without expectations and limitations. That is best phrased by the concept of “SERVE WITHOUT RESERVE”. Said in other words, do not limit your service. Do not preconceive what you need to do to serve well… ASK the client! You ask because you CARE and you seek to UNDERSTAND. Stay true to the 4 keys to creating client success (CUSP) and you will not fail. You will learn, you will co-create, you will enable others into the greatness of their own, you will serve without reserve.
To do this well requires preparation, planning, study, listening, learning, and a lot of hard work.
To close, another quote. From General Colin Powell. “There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure.”
This applies completely to the success in serving our client, our team, our family, our church, or our community.
OK, LET’S ROLL…. And let’s get deep into SERVING!
Mitch
I ask…..
Can you ask the really tough question? Do you even know what it is?
In 1986 a book was written called “Spin Selling”. Its author was Neil Rackham. Its premise was the concept of consultative client engagement. It has been a part of my thinking ever since. It stands today as one of the more important pieces of work for today’s world. Now, with anything is written 30 years ago, much has changed and a lot of the details will have shifted to the dynamics of today. However, the fundamentals apply more than ever. There is a question that Neil offers up that today is the most telling of all. It relates to the value that we each create when we engage a client in discussions. This needs your attention and honest response. Assuming that you have just completed a client discussion…
The question is….
Would the client have willingly PAID for the call that you just completed?
Get real with that one and work with your team to apply that criteria to the last call that you had with a key client. Time to be brutally honest here.
Let’s step into the realm of making sure that the answer to that question is YES, the next time you have a client interaction.
How do we make sure that the value that we co-create with the client is significant and that it matters to them?
It is a three-step process. PLAN – DO – REVIEW Think of a three-part circle that begins with PLAN, rotates clockwise to DO, then rotates again to REVIEW, which points back at the beginning of PLAN. A bit of an infinite circle.
Start with PLAN. At its core is the desire to UNDERSTAND the client and their challenges. BUT, not simply today’s issues. Your differentiation comes from your desire to understand and serve the client with the challenges that they are yet to fully grasp. That takes time and effort to dig out and lots of dialogs to fully comprehend. It is the single point that will make you shine vs all of the rest of the folks getting time with the client. Dig in deep, understand where they are going as a corporation and a team, and as individuals. Keep going beyond the 2nd and 3rd level questions to explore. This takes time and dedicated effort and it is worth every minute you will take.
The DO is the part that we believe we have down pat. Meet, greet, gab, tell… is the default process of way too many folks. We’ll dig into the new world order of what DO should look like later. Let’s roll into REVIEW.
We learned from studying with the Air Force many years ago that their 4 step mission process concluded with REVIEW. And that the post-mission review (client call in our terms) was where the learning really took place. Here you dig into what worked, why, what did not work in the call or the conversation, and again why? What more did we need to do? What did we discover that we did not know? Inquiry for the sake of understanding. Keep digging!
And all of that review work was aimed at the PLANNING for the next call and the infinite circle of service that we love.
The co-creation of value, from the time of Spin Selling to today is still the most powerful factor in the success of serving a client. VALUE, as seen by them and as recognized by them is in fact the “secret sauce”. AND if you create enough value in the engagement with the client then THEY will answer the question positively….
Would the client have willingly PAID for the call that you just completed?
The choice is yours, create client recognized value, or just tell them all about your world-class stuff.
CUSP rules…
OK, LET’s ROLL!
Mitch
Time to change? Maybe not!
It is said that change is inevitable. Not my place to argue that philosophical point, but considering our world today it is a reasonable hypothesis. Change on its own can have multiple dimensions from good to bad. If we are to grow and prosper in a changing environment we must convert simple change into evolution for advancement. A concept that conveys that direction is “continuous improvement (C.I.)”. A never-ending path of change that creates outcomes that are better than their predecessors. What once was great becomes outmoded and improved upon, with a never-ending loop of that circle of actions and outcomes.
While evolving for goodness sake in the C.I. loop it is essential that we always stay focused on the values that we treasure. Process and people changes at all levels ARE inevitable. We see it daily. We choose how we respond to it daily. Our choice must be that our values of service to others never falter. Our focus on making a difference in the lives of others is key to keeping us different and of high value to the world around us. Parts and products are the wares of our trade. Creative thinking is the tool behind the magic that we co-create with our clients, our team, our family… our friends.
Purpose drives us. Understanding guides us. Service is the “doing”. All because we care greatly about those people that we choose to serve.
Work done without a purpose creates no true value for anyone!
So when purveyors of new ideas come forward with grand directions and change in thinking we welcome it and we stop and look for the C.I. and look to see who it serves. The highest level of greatness is created when it serves others first! What is the purpose of what we are looking to do?
So when you tie this to the question of a week ago…” what problem are you trying to solve?”, you get the rest of the story. And that is an understanding of its C.I. nature, or not, and its purpose perspective.
So here can be a triple header of questions about the change in front of you…
- Is it really continuous improvement?
- What is its true purpose?
- How does it serve others first?
This will make for an interesting client conversation about their view of their challenges and “changes”. It will continue to make a great conversation with our teams and how we engage with our clients to maximize our value to them as well.
To twist an old phrase a bit…. “VIVA la EVOLUTION!!”
OK, LET’s ROLL!
Mitch
No…. really, what problem are we trying to solve?
A lot of times we find ourselves getting distracted from the bigger picture and the challenge that matters the most. We start with great intentions, work hard to frame the challenge, and MANY times we get sidetracked with what may be more easily measured, driven, and controlled. We are suckers for measurable actions, even though they may not drive the bigger outcome. We are process junkies, and that is NOT wrong!
In corporate life, we all gather in groups, brainstorm ideas, and settle on the answer to “what problem are we trying to solve”. You will hear that over and over, even while we are taking steps in a sideways direction rather than head-on towards the more critical objective. It’s pretty easy to get caught up in well-meaning groupthink.
Tie the “what problem are we trying to solve” question directly into a cause and effect element that drives one of your (personal, corporate, client) strategic objectives and you will keep it on track more easily. Even then we must still be honest to the question of “what problem are we trying to solve”. Keep it real and keep it focused for this set of actions.
There is an old term that still works well when tackling the early definition of this, whether it be an internal corporate issue or a client issue. From the early days of “sale processes” came the term, with derivatives, of FAA (fix, accomplish, avoid). At an appropriate time in the client engagement, which is not early on, one of the questions worth tabling is Dear client… what is the company looking to fix, accomplish, or avoid (with a modifier something like.. in these current resource constrained times).
With the FAA perspective in mind, you will find yourself working in a higher level of client interaction than product, pricing, and delivery issues. All this comes back to the focus that we all must have at this moment, and that is our client actions need to be aimed at innovation and new creation, rather than alternate sourcing actions. The latter can be time sync leading to very little if we let it. Our, choice….where and how we engage with clients!
An age-old adage… all clients need the appropriate level of support. How we do that is in our hands. And how we do that to the max is vital to how we each differentiate ourselves.
So back to the beginning, with FAA in mind… what are we (us and our clients) really trying to DO, corporately and personally?
So let’s go DO IT!
OK, LET’S ROLL!
With CUSP at heart!
Mitch
If you are grateful, show it!
Don’t waste the chance to tell the world thank you!
It has been a strangely eventful week this week. Sunday has topped off many of the elements where we have watched people and teams compete, win and lose, and always be grateful.
The list of strange and grateful includes the last week of recovery from knee replacement surgery that was done about 10 days ago. The recovery has been amazingly great. Never stopped walking and yesterday started up gentle workouts on the elliptical. The week included 5 time a day workouts (non-elliptical) and connection to my own little icing machine several times each day. The word grateful does not do justice to the wonderful help that the little machine could provide to the left knee. Cold has never felt that good. However, on Thursday night the vacuum pump bandage system kind of gave way. So Friday morning the doctor was contacted and it was established that a 3:30 appointment would work to see what needed to be done.
Even more grateful for the medical team. The day-long work activity that was set for Friday now had to stop a couple of hours before it was done. That was ok with all involved, considering the situation. Now grateful to the business teams that were working on complex issues. ALL people can create gratefulness given the chance.
Made the 3:30 appointment a bit early and was greeted by the doctor and nurse that had done the surgery (remember this is 3:30 on a Friday afternoon. Best news of all that day. The incision was so well recovered that they chose to NOT put the complex vacuum pump bandage back in place and instead chose to just seal it up a bit with small little adhesive strips. At this point, GRATEFULNESS is overflowing as the trip home takes place.
Over the weekend many examples of the power of being grateful play out in front of me. Sunday has been full of such examples. A Formula One race took place in Russia, Lewis Hamilton won that race (it was his 100th win, so nothing new here). However, the reason he won that race was due to a single decision that his pit team had made, and he did not agree with but executed anyhow. He won that race because of his team’s decision. And he acknowledged that and was truly GRATEFUL. In another race of the day in the INDYCAR championship, there was a first-ever Spanish driver winning the series championship. Watching him, you can tell that his nature was one of being truly grateful for all of the people in his life that had believed in him and helped in achieve his goals, from go-carts to winning one of the hardest to win championships anywhere
The golf Ryder Cup (Europe vs USA) was contested over the last few days, and in this case, the USA team dominated the Eu team. That has not always been the case, and in this case, you can hear an amazing amount of gratefulness from ALL of the players on both teams for the opportunity to help their team compete.
To end up Sunday there is about to be a NASCAR race take place on TV from Las Vegas. I KNOW the nature of those drivers and teams. You will see fierce competition and everyone working their tail ends off. AND being grateful to be able to participate in that sport at that level.
Long story, short question, and action to take. Let’s see if you have the courage to tackle this one.
Question: WHO are you most grateful for in your client base? WHY?
Action to take…. FIND someone in each client that you are grateful for and TELL them NOW!
OK, LET’S ROLL…. Sharing our gratefulness openly! You will be amazed at what you learn!
Mitch Little
p.s. want to double the challenge… do the same thing at home…..
