TIME for CARING!
WHY do I CARE?
Caring has been the subject of my thinking and writing for quite a while now. It goes back to understanding what truly motivates people and what motivates me. Somewhere along the line of working with thousands of “sales” people across every continent (well, not counting our penguin colleagues in Antarctica!), the singular point of CARING became clear as the genesis of all great outcomes especially in the art of serving others.
It became crystal clear for me and I memorialized that perspective with a tattoo on my calf nearly 20 years ago. Since then I have gone on to add more to that art gallery, but the first one set the standard. Born in the year of the dragon in 1952 I have always been enthralled by that “mythical” being. Representing the spiritual part of the balance of being, yin-yang, the dragon became my symbolic commitment to caring. Above the large, colorful dragon that is tattooed on my right calf are the three words that guide me daily…MAKE A DIFFERENCE. My objective there is each and every day I will make a difference for someone! Stranger, family, teammate…every day, somehow, some way. WHY, because I CARE to make a difference.
My singular focus of caring is simple sounding and extremely difficult to DO! Stepping back from concept to look at HOW we demonstrate that we care is where the work begins.
I have said it before and I will say it again… other people do NOT care how much you know until they KNOW how much you care, and it must be extremely obvious that you care from the heart and soul and it is not a “tactic” that you are executing.
How do you demonstrate truthful caring? It’s actually pretty easy. You show you care by seeking deeply to understand others. Understand because you choose to co-create greatness when you get the understanding going. You seek out knowledge about others, their challenges, their desires, their goals, the outcomes that they are driving for. It’s not simply information that you seek, it's back to the big “U” word…UNDERSTANDING. You look for as much clarity and completeness of the search that you can possibly create. It’s not just asking questions. That can be too mechanical. It's looking at the “why” of what is desired. The “why” is the motivating drive behind the “what” that is being looked for. It’s a dialog, not a series of Q&A. It’s actually a very contextually specific dialog based on the nature of the conversation itself. You don’t go talking about plumbing with an electrical contractor. Well, of course, you can, but you won’t likely be creating any substantial value for either of you.
This all takes preparation, study, self-reflection, and time. To open up the door for an insightful discussion you must start the ball rolling with delivering insights that create curiosity, that opens up the mini invite to further the conversation and your understanding.
You all have examples of what this conversation can look like. In my technology space here is one…
…talking with Bonnie, an engineering manager of a network equipment manufacturer…
Bonnie, our global client base of over 125,000 tells us that one of the biggest challenges that they face today in the area of new product development is that a majority of their R&D engineers have been shifted over to re-engineering older products for manufacturability. Many of them have told us that as much as 75% of those critical new product resources have been redirected. That must put a BIG dent in the introduction of new products for them. Are you experiencing something like that in your world? (assuming a yes answer)…wow, tell me how that is impacting you and your team.
Insight, curiosity, inquiry… open the conversation door. Continue digging deeper into the PERSONAL impact that it is having on her and her team. How about the impact on the corporation. Keep digging… because you care to understand and then serve.
Take time to create your own caring understanding thinking, then put it to work…because you care.
Why do I care how much you care? More on that next week.
OK, LET’s ROLL! Digging deeper into it all!
Mitch
To Care, or not to Care, that is the question!
Or is it?
The real question is first WHY should I care?
We’ll get to that.
Let’s start with a bit of a reframe. The list of all of the leading “sales processes” discussed earlier all have a common theme…selling.
Here is where we take a totally different tack and think of things “different”.
In our book SHIFTABILITY we talked deeply about the need to make a change. Since the publishing of that book just a few years ago, the world has changed multiple times over and continues on an almost daily evolution of nearly everything. The question is asked…the world has changed…have you? And if we are going to keep up with a highly dynamic environment we also must evolve…quickly, and put ourselves into a constant state of effective evolution.
Making a change in ourselves requires that we take several steps. We start with changing our thinking, how we see the world. This leads to changing our beliefs, what was true once is no longer. This takes us to changing our actions, doing things that we had not done before. Which all can lead to changing outcomes to make a difference in the world.
(the book SHIFTABILITY outlines the specific work needed to make this all happen, and remember all the proceeds go to CHARITYWATER.org)
If it is your desire to make a difference in the world then CUSP is your “process”.
As was said just a bit ago, the greatest sales “process” ever… is actually…
STOP SELLING…NOW!
START SERVING NOW!
Because the key to making the shift is understanding that all of what we DO is actually a HUMAN process, NOT any sort of selling process, so STOP selling and get to serving.
(“SSN” is the three-letter acronym that sums up the entire methodology. Simple, powerful, and tough to do well.)
The genesis for effective change and growth through serving is CARING! It is the motivator for taking the time to do all else that is needed to help those we serve to accomplish what THEY want to accomplish. The focus is external and simple. We care! We think that way. We create plans that way. We communicate that way. It is not just what we do, it is who we ARE. We ARE people that care about those that we serve because it comes naturally to us as part of our inner beliefs. We acknowledge that attribute openly and we seek feedback on the execution of our belief. A challenge to you…have extreme courage, ask those around you if you come across like a caring person. Dig into their response and look for ways to learn about enhancing this aspect of ourselves.
I know from my own experience that this is the normal perspective that most people involved in client engagement all share. We have asked hundreds of folks over the last many years why they get up each day to tackle the endeavor of serving clients and the response it best summarizes as they like to “help people”. They care!
There is an old quote that comes into play here. It has to do with the people you serve and your business relationship with them. Your credibility with a client is important to you and instrumental to them and how they will view your engagement with them. The source for this quote seems to have multiple possibilities. The quote is, “people do not care how much you know until they know how much you care.” Acknowledged caring is the first block in the foundation.
We will look more at what CARING looks like in action next…
OK, LET’s ROLL!… and keep the caring coming!
Mitch
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
