THE PROLOGUE
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And so it began, the search for the best “sales process” that solved all the world's challenges and brought prosperity to humankind.
In the early 20s, 30s, 40s, and 50s selling went through a number of evolutions from Snake Oil salespeople to pyramid selling to mood selling, barrier selling, and the great work done by Dale Carnegie on Relationship Selling.
While a lot happened in those early days the 60s is where it made a huge shift with work done by Xerox. Their methodology was so successful that they packaged and sold it to other companies under the name of Professional Selling Skills. That form of thinking prevailed for quite a while, and I studied that process in my early days as well. Then the flood gates opened and the search for selling Nirvana went full speed ahead. Thru the 60s and 70s things took a few turns and every few years we had a brand new magic answer to how to “sell” better. Some of the more notable selling methodologies are below.
It can be said that many of these had success. A few became almost cult-like in nature. All of these are related to the world of the complex sell. Not a simple transaction sale of simple nature. This would be B2B selling as we know it today. Most with a many-month cycle time.
As we sit here today we find ourselves in a brand new world and again, in search of the magic selling wand that does everything. And, just as in the early days, there is no easy answer. It is not magic. But this time we do have THE WAY…. What is true now, has always been true. There is an answer that is at our fingertips, that WILL create the outcomes that you desire. The greatest sales methodology ever, or sales process ever, or whatever label you need to apply to it is THIS….
STOP SELLING!!! NOW!!!
START SERVING!!! NOW!!!
Ok, what? Crazy right? Nope. Sane as heck with a proven way of doing the job, for the benefit of ALL. And outcomes that every client, corporate stakeholder, and salesperson anywhere would give their all to have! The data will prove it.
Over the next many weeks we are going to spell out the Why, How, and What to the CUSP way of serving our clients. CUSP, in case you did not catch this in the few hundred other articles on CUSP, means…
CARE greatly,
UNDERSTAND deeply,
SERVE endlessly, with
PURPOSE
We will dig into each of the 4 quadrants, explain what is meant, why we do it, and how it actually gets done, what it looks like in action.
And so it starts…..
CHAPTER ONE:
So you think you CARE! How do you know? Who have you asked? What did they say? What were your follow on thoughts and questions?
Why should you care…. That and more in the CARE world….next week….
OK, LET’s ROLL!
And dig into your sense of caring.
Mitch
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
