Thoughts for your consideration….
My hardnosed thoughts on this subject!
As said before, needs to be said and internalized AGAIN and AGAIN by us ALL!
WORDS MATTER, EVERY WORD MATTERS, MORE THAN EVER!
Choose your words carefully as they directly reflect your thoughts, which directly drive your outcomes! All connected, no question, so pick wisely!
There are large-scale thoughts that affect what we do in many ways. Good, bad, ugly, biased, right, wrong… all subjective. ALL of our “doing” is driven by what we believe, and what we believe is crafted by how we think, and the words we use to express it all.
WORDS have the possibility to affect others beyond us deeply, for good or bad. Even simple words can have a profound impact that we may not even fully understand.
You all have ingrained experiences when the cutting remark made by someone else hurt you deeply. You also have those memories of words said that were kind and heartwarming and that helped pick you up and save the day.
Making a difference with those that we choose to serve is driven by the thoughts we have and the words we use, that create outcomes. Pure and simple.
It all starts with the choice you make about how you THINK about those we serve. A lot of colorful words could come to mind here, but let’s simplify the thinking a bit and look at the two that matter the most.
CLIENT and CUSTOMER
What is the difference and why does it matter?
It has been said that this is just semantics, but it is NOT!
In life, in business, in all things, the words you choose to use have an impact, whether you believe it, see it, or not! The implications of each word chosen make a difference!
In this case, the choice of “labels” will actually help you make a strategic choice about the level of relationship that you are willing to create with each person that you choose to serve.
Let’s dig into the differences.
A CUSTOMER is a person that buys goods or services from a business. The relationship is mostly a transactional one. There is seldom any level of long-term connection between the parties. Typical of this would be retail stores, banks, restaurants, amusement parks, and gas stations. Most engagement is limited in time and scope.
CLIENTS typically receive much more personalized attention, have access to a wider variety of support teams, and are most commonly thought of as the domain of such entities as a law firm, a design studio, an insurance agency, an accounting firm, or a real estate agency. CLIENTs general buy advice and solutions. You will find yourself in strategic long-term relationships with CLIENTs. You will form teams to support CLIENTS. You will involve leadership teams to serve CLIENTS.
You will have both CUSTOMERs and CLIENTs in your world. You already know the difference. It’s time to be intentional with what you do and who you do it with.
You personally feel the difference in how you are treated by those that are looking to sell you something or serve your need.
We are all best served when we choose to engage with CLIENTs on a high level of personalization and focus.
Those that fail to recognize the difference in how we serve and think differently about it are simply not committed to the concept of serving. They are still stuck in the world of selling. If you are expecting to have different results than the rest of your competitors then you had best be working hard on how to serve the people that you have chosen to serve, in a different manner that is focused on THEM, not yourself and your corporate marching orders. The world’s products and technology are a commoditized battleground.
Everyone has great STUFF!
What are you DOING to be different?
It starts with changing your thinking.
Elevate your thinking!
Choose to think about the PEOPLE that we serve as CLIENTS!
Customers are those folks that walk into a convenience store for a pack of gum. ALL good…we all need them as well! We have to create ways to serve everyone that we can with an appropriate level of resource that delivers what they need when they need it.
CLIENT Engagement Professionals are the difference makers in the B2B world and external focus and pure motivation are the keys to changing the world for the better of all! Big task. You are capable of doing it with the right THINKING!
Not sure, ask someone you serve which way they would prefer to be helped, as a CLIENT or a CUSTOMER!
Stand up for your CLIENTs, don’t let them get turned into CUSTOMERs. There IS a big difference, go explore for yourself!
OK, LET’S ROLL!!
Mitch
p.s. I love being a CLIENT and being treated like one, I know you do too!
Thoughts for your consideration…
… WHY are you doing what you are doing?
Considering that for the last couple of years the world stopped, changed directions, wabbled, and is still trying to get its feet under it, it’s a shame that most companies in the B2B space are feverously trying to get “back” to something that they feel is “normal”. Marty McFly and the Delorean time machine (movie – Back to the Future) are pushing hard to become the guiding light for our future directions. And this is just silly!
Our last few years have taught us amazing lessons on what CAN be done and how well NEW things can serve us all. And yet we insist on melding back into time with quotas, commissions, blitz campaigns, massive lead generation efforts, tons of “new” collateral and commoditized “insights”, and all of the same old ways of thinking about how to “GET” salespeople to do what the corporation wants them to do. Almost all of this has nothing to do with true leadership, coaching, listening, thinking, or other truly functional activities. The thinking is just…let’s ramp up the push of stuff to the clients. Let’s put more pressure on the “sales team” to HIT THEIR NUMBERS. Surely it will all work this time….although it was not working PC (pre covid). It has to work this time!!! Doesn’t it? Good luck in that desire!
Any good systems analyst will tell you that when things are really broken, you MUST elevate your perspective and look at the highest level of systemic understanding that you can grasp. It has to be dealt with from as high up as you can get, then flowed down into all the streams needed to execute properly.
Today we face an overload of “product information” pouring over the heads of all of our clients. All aimed at telling the story that the seller wants to tell. Good information, however, is not contextually specific enough to differentiate from all of the other “stuff” coming into the client’s viewpoint. Saturation exists, and confusion abounds. Clients are not best served in this mode. This state of mind just adds to the delay of any possible change actions needed within the client to move forward.
Too much good data, everyone focused on themselves, their back pocket, and hitting their numbers. Sucks! Well at least for those that chose to play the game the way that the Back to the Future time machine would offer.
There is an answer that works.
Change the rules!
Learn to simply SERVE, without reserve!
Break out from what was, that is seemingly wanted again!
Find a new vision in serving the clients to help them co-create outcomes that matter greatly to THEM.
Kill quotas, kill commissions, kill deal reviews, kill all the non-value-added crap that you all put your sales team through. Hire coaching experts to help you create an environment of peer coaching that creates massive team cohesiveness. Understand that those we serve must be treated like clients and true partners, not convenience store customers. Learn to LEAD from people like Hendre Coetzee. Focus all of your energy on helping your team make a difference in the lives of the people that we serve at our clients, our schools, our homes, our churches….everywhere, all the time!
The fundamental force of making this happens continues to be…
CUSP
Care greatly,
Understand deeply,
Serve endlessly, with
PURPOSE
The CUSP Advisory Group stands ready to serve anyone looking to make a difference in the lives of those that THEY serve.
OK, LET’S ROLL!
Mitch
WE’RE BACK!!!!!
After a few weeks' break, post my retirement from Microchip, it’s time to jump back into the fray and offer up many of my thoughts for your consideration… and that will be the basis title of this blog series for the foreseeable future.
Thoughts for your consideration!
An interesting perspective is allowed by having the freedom of expression that comes with no ties or connections to anyone or anything beyond what you choose to connect with. This is a formidable challenge as it allows for many more open doors and perspectives than when one is tied closely to any corporate entity. While you should not expect to see much of a radical change in thinking from what has been put forward for last several years, you will likely hear some significant extensions from what has already been said. And there is a LOT to be said.
At the same time most of what will be offered up is directly in link with all of the CUSP theory and execution that has been communicated directly and distinctly from here for a LONG time.
CUSP remains the soapbox from which most of the blog posts that you will see from here ongoing will have as a cornerstone.
In that light, the new mitchlittle.com website is in its early launch stage. It opens up sharing with you all, another avenue of creation that has been a personal passion for most of my life, photography! Adding to the announcement of CUSP Advisory Group, the photography element will dig into the fundamentals of EXPLORE the world, DISCOVER new possibilities, and CREATE excellence!
ALL things are driven by the fundamental of the Dragon and MAKE A DIFFERENCE!
CUSP, a human engagement process, unlike typical “sales processes” is centered around serving others to help them co-create value that aids others in achieving what THEY wish to achieve, in service to the people that THEY serve.
CUSP is the following mindset….
CARE greatly,
UNDERSTAND deeply,
SERVE endlessly, with
PURPOSE
In support of the globalization of the CUSP concepts, post the retirement from MCHP, the CUSP ADVISORY GROUP has been formed.
The CUSP ADVISORY GROUP stands ready to serve others that wish to achieve excellence in co-creating client value, excellence in co-creating leadership, and excellence in outcomes that matter!
So, consider the thought that while many folks are rushing to get BACK to normal, those that create excellence, think differently and are looking at how to best serve those that they serve with NEW ideas; that come from all directions and represent a serious re-look at all timelines and assumptions.
As is said in SHIFTABILITY… “the world has changed (add greatly to that sentence now), have you”? Time to shift!
In upcoming blogs, I will offer up for consideration some thoughts on...
And in continuance and onward…
OK, LET’S ROLL!
Mitch
The ENCORE blog!
As of June 2, 2022 the employment of Mitch Little as Sr. Vice President -WW Client Engagement at Microchip Technology Inc is DONE! The typical term for this change would be “retirement”. The better term for where we go next is into my “encore” career (thanks Hendre). Starting at Microchip in Nov 1989, the past 32+ years have flown by, the last 10 at warp speed. It was an amazing journey from a company bleeding what little cash it had, through a turn around and on to thriving, led by our CEO, Steve Sanghi, and his team. It was an extremely fortunate turn of events to be one of the few that reported to Steve directly and take this entire journey together.
Intentional change happened each and every day in our battle to first survive, then thrive. We became virtual masters at the change game. We titled it “continuous improvement”. It was CHANGE! Change of business processes, change of technologies, change of manufacturing methods, and massive change in outcomes.
We changed our thinking about most everything. It changed our beliefs. That changed our actions. We changed our world, and all of the people in it! Early on we understood that consciously created corporate culture that was REAL would be the guiding light to carry us forward over every obstacle that we would face. How right we were, and how true it became.
In these change years we made a bold step in the world of “selling” (later more properly defined by us as “client engagement), that made our lives better in every respect and changed the way those we serve view us.
We eliminated “sales” COMMISSIONS! This quickly became a huge advantage that we had in our external efforts, and has continued to be a major advantage and a shifting point in how we viewed “what we did” and “what we offered” with our clients in the co creation of value.
Lots more to come in the near future on the Poison Called Commission, and how to counter it.
This journey of mine as allowed me to celebrate a variety of personal milestones. Turning “40” at MCHP was followed by turning “50”, turning “60” and now turning “70”. 4 such celebrations are notable and NOW it is time to turn the reins over to an extraordinary Client Engagement team led by Joe Krawczyk. More on making these kind of evolution moves to come in the blogs in the near future.
That leads us to today. The Microchip history gives an amazing base of understanding, learning, creating, changing, execution, changing, coaching, changing, communication, and yep more changing (a theme arises).
Process is everything, and outcomes matter! The outcomes that have been created by the team at Microchip are unmatched in many ways. Having just completed 126 consecutive quarters of profitability, a record continues that at least in the Semiconductor space has no equal. From a start of $17M a quarter 3 decades ago, MCHP just closed a quarter at $1.84B!
Record revenue, record earnings, records upon records. With more to come. The little broke company from Chandler of 1989 has turned into a leader in the industry in helping clients create success for their clients. And has reached market capitalization of ~40B$ based on the daily whims of the stock market.
And that was then, and this is now. So we go on from here. Microchip in its leadership position in a complex and rapidly changing industry, and myself into my encore.
From this blog starting in just a couple of weeks I will take time to write about my views on a variety of subjects. This time as an individual thinker about all things focused on serving those that we chose to serve. CUSP will continue to be my “stump” from which I will engage the world. I will have started the CUSP Advisory Group from which an offer to help the world make a difference in “selling, leading, change, communication” will be available for all. My doors will be open to serving those that choose to learn and make a difference with others.
As my dad said many weekends before another family camping trip; and I now echo….
OK, LET’S ROLL!
Mitch
We have said many times that “words are everything”! A single word misused, misspoken, or misinterpreted, can do more harm than almost anything else. Often that failure goes totally unnoticed by the person that used the word. In terms of effective communication, it is the responsibility of the “transmitter” to ensure complete and full understanding by the “receiver”. That can be tough to accept by some. Seems that for some folks it is about the opposite, whatever is said, regardless of how poor it is transmitted, the understanding and reception of what is said is up to the “receiver”. Sadly it just does not work well in that construct. You say it, you must make sure that it gets UNDERSTOOD, not just heard. You say it, you write it, you email it along…YOU own it, and the outcome of what is said and all of its consequences.
So be careful what you say. Say it well. Make sure that it gets UNDERSTOOD. Then in all likelihood, to be effective, you will need to say it 8 more times (per the “rule of 9 times”, which says it takes that many repetitions for something new to be comprehended).
With this premise at work, we will focus on ONE word as we close out on the CUSP concepts and implementation. With about 60% of our audience having English as a second language I believe that this one word is key to everyone’s effective human engagement and we can’t afford to lose anything in the translation.
This word is EMPATHY!
There is a wonderful lady by the name of Brene Brown. She is brilliant in what she writes and says and the world would be a better place if we all spent some time with her studying the “human experience”. Her podcast “DARE to LEAD” is amazing.
My youngest daughter sent me a link to a YouTube video of Brene’s a while ago after one of my blogs dug into empathy a bit (I would never have guessed that my “kids” were paying attention to what their “ole man” was saying, but it seems so 😊 a bit). In this piece, Brene talks about the difference between sympathy and empathy and the value of the latter. It is worth listening to all 9 times needed to help it sink in… AND sharing it around the house and working with family and friends to have the conversation about how you can serve others well with a full understanding of EMPATHY.
Words ARE everything, and in my journey as an MCHP employee, my time to share my words is quickly drawing to a close. In 2 weeks' time I will author my last blog as SVP WW Client Engagement – Microchip Technology Inc. This is NOT the end of the journey, just a shifting of gears……
Cue the video…..
OK, LET’S ROLL!… onward and upward! One GREAT word at a time!
Mitch
p.s. thank you so very much, Jamie… I love you!
