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
A lesson learned a long time ago from my father got reinforced again for me this past week. It applies in many cases more now than ever, and in a few very specific points it is “the only way to think”.
I was very fortunate to grow up with parents that were closely involved in my life. As a youngster I was involved in “Scouting”, meaning Boy Scouts and their younger versions, Cub Scouts. I was very fortunate to have both of my parents involved in both of those journeys with me. My mother was my “Den Mother” in Cub Scouts, and my father was my “Pack Master” at that time. This was just one of the many places that my parents intentionally chose to participate in my life.
At about the same time I grew up playing baseball and participating in Little League baseball. In this part of my youth, my father was my team Coach. It was in this part of my youth that I learned a lesson from my dad that carries on today and means more than ever.
When my “coach” would be working with our team on any one of a hundred different skills I would often hear him say “you can’t do NO”.
What he was saying is a fundamental part of the way the brain actually works. Now, I’m not quite sure where my dad picked this brilliant understanding up from, because his formal education stopped with high school, but I DO know that this is a critical part of understanding functional brain workings.
What “you can’t do NO” means is simply that the human brain cannot comprehend the “negative” part of a statement. Let’s use the example of a golfer standing at the tee facing a simple 175 yard shot to the green, BUT over a lake. While we know the objective is to put the ball in the hole on the green, most of us would stand there thinking VERY loudly to ourselves… DON’T HIT THE WATER! It’s not magic, although it seems very diabolical, but that simple statement actually gets understood in simple action terms to quite literally mean “HIT THE WATER”. The “don’t” part of that phrase does NOT impact the brain process and gets left out of the directive to the brain.
In my dad’s case, he would be giving us batting coaching and I would be stepping out away from an incoming pitch as it was crossing the plate in front of me… swinging and missing the ball. His directions to me was NOT, don’t step out when you swing, which is the error that I was making. Instead, his coaching would say…”step INTO the pitch”. Don’t was not included. He knew what worked.
And that is what we need today….desperately! We are all so overwhelmed with the tactical responsive demands of our systems that we are NOT spending enough time on the growth oriented side of our world, both business and personal.
In our own little team at Microchip the client demands to service their “issues” are at an all time high. Business is booming and is extremely pressure filled at every corner. Our clients are reaching out to every resource that they can touch to get any help that they can to solve their challenges… AND that is a good thing! As long as we direct the interactions appropriately.
Like most every B2B entity out there our team has roles that we are structured to execute. The client works hard to break down those structures and “include” everyone in their supply chain challenges. They contact our inside team, our outside team, our corporate planning teams, our leadership team… everyone they can. We understand. There is a better way.
Here is where “you can’t do NO” comes into play.
While it would be very easy to communicate with our team and simply tell them that those that have a role that is not supply chain specialization should NOT participate in these actions…that “you can’t do NO” does not work here either.
In the focus of CUSP (Care greatly, Understand deeply, Serve endlessly with Purpose) you cannot effectively tell someone to NOT care. In fact we actually want the opposite….Care greatly! So what do we do? We coach the way my dad would…
In conversations with our clients, where they are wanting to get everyone drug into the “conversations” our way of serving them at the very highest level, is by Caring the most, and making sure that they get the best service.
We do that by a simple redirection…. And it looks like this..
“Martha (made up client’s name), I care greatly about you and your team receiving the very best information and service that we can possibly deliver to you. While I am happy to also help, our true EXPERTS in serving you in this area is our amazing team of SUPPLY CHAIN SPECIALISTS. Let’s get them on a call together and get this all understood.”
So, we don’t tell ourselves or our team that “WE” don’t have those kind of conversations…but rather, the best people in the world to help our clients is…(whoever that would be in each instance).
We “don’t do NO”… We DO work hard to serve our client by putting them in the very best hands of those that can do the most good… and then we fade into the background as it progresses, to do the rest of the work needed to grow our outcomes.
This is a coaching discussion, both internally and externally that we all must have to insure the ongoing growth of ALL aspects of our endeavors.
We don’t do NO…
AND we do…
Care greatly,
Understand deeply,
Serve endlessly with
Purpose!
OK, LET’S ROLL!
Mitch
Are you willing to find out what you may not know????
I have a challenge for each of you this week. Let’s see who the truly curious are, and who believes they “know it all” already.
One of the greatest thinkers about people and organizations of our time was Stephen Covey. Lost to us not so long ago, his practical insight into people will be forever studied and followed by those that care about others.
One of his best works ever was the study of The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People (notice that his aim was at ALL people, ALL roles, everywhere).
From Wikipedia: ” Covey presents an approach to being effective in attaining goals by aligning oneself to what he calls "true north" principles based on a character ethic that he presents as universal and timeless. Covey defines effectiveness as the balance of obtaining desirable results with caring for that which produces those results. He illustrates this by referring to the fable of the goose that laid the golden eggs.”
A short summary of the 7 Habits is below with direct excerpts from his work.
Habit 1: Be Proactive®
Focus and act on what they can control and influence, instead of what you can’t.Habit 2: Begin With the End in Mind®
Define clear measures of success and a plan to achieve them.Habit 3: Put First Things First®
Prioritize and achieve their most important goals, instead of constantly reacting to urgencies.Habit 4: Think Win-Win®
Collaborate more effectively by building high-trust relationships.Habit 5: Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood®
Influence others by developing a deep understanding of their needs and perspectives.Habit 6: Synergize®
Develop innovative solutions that leverage diversity and satisfy all key stakeholders.Habit 7: Sharpen the Saw®
Increase motivation, energy, and work/life balance by making time for renewing activities.
Written in 1989 Covey, even then, talks about the value of diversity in our world (Habit 6). Where I want to go today is with Habit 5 (Seek first to understand before being understood).
So here is my challenge to us all….
Ask this simple question of many that you know and trust AND that will be candid with you.
“Dear Friend, when you close your eyes and envision me, which of these two visual images come into your mind… a GIANT EAR, or a GIANT MOUTH?”
You want a candid answer? Ask your “significant other!”
This habit of listening first is SO difficult to build into our way of communicating. And my experience is that the most intelligent of those around us are the least likely to do this well. While this is only my correlation, I believe that the higher the IQ the less likely a person is to actually listen to those around them. Thankfully this does not apply always.
I know of two people that I have worked closely with over the past 30 years that are truly brilliant AND are natural listeners. That last part is critical. If in your informal “survey of EAR vs MOUTH” you find a surprise or two, then I suggest that it is time to LEARN the art of actually listening. Not just on a surface level, but on a perspective of actually WANTING to know what someone else thinks and cares about.
The first most obvious trait, of a non-listener, is if that person regularly interrupts another person that is speaking, to “correct” them or let them know that they are off base. Not letting another person complete their thought is a weakness of many folks. I see this happen on a daily basis. I hear this happen in conversations with clients, peers, family, friends, all around us in the stress-filled environment that our world has shifted into. Great minds hard at work, solving problems, AND not listening.
Try the EAR/MOUTH survey… and as my DAD would tell me even as a punk kid…. “Mitch….shut up AND listen”.
Your next challenge is to help the natural “interrupters” break their old habits and develop new HABITS from the 7 HABITS world.
OK, LET’S ROLL… and really LISTEN!
Mitch
