Helping Customers Get from Whether They Are to Where They Want to Be
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Hi!
Here's the September 2011
issue of Psyche-Selling TM eNewsletter, and
customers are demanding more creative solutions from you.
While many people
may believe that excellent service is the key to enhance
customer loyalty, customers may care a lot more for the results
you deliver, rather than the great service you offer. This
is especially true for Business-to-Business (B2B) customers,
where they rely on suppliers to provide creative and customised
solutions in order to achieve better results.
At the same
time, customer service professionals are facing constraints such
as resources, costs or simply company policies, which sometimes
could restrict the variety and quality of the solutions for
customers.
Hence, this month's topics:
-
Helping Customers
Get from Where They Are to Where They Want to Be; and
-
Shirking (aka "I love you, but everyone else hates you")
This issue's main article is on "Helping Customers
Get from Where They Are to Where They Want to Be", and we look into how
you can provide creative customer solutions DESPITE the
constraints you face at work.
In brief:
-
While customers may state their
demands to get things done in a certain way, they sometimes
don't state the best solution that will help them achieve
their goals;
-
Customers also have personal needs that have to be
satisfied, in addition to their business needs;
-
As such, to serve customers
better, you will have to understand both personal and
business needs of your customers, and then suggest creative
solutions that will help them achieve their goals. Read on... ...
To read the rest of this newsletter, pls.
click here (http://www.psycheselling.com/page4.html.
In the meantime,
get
a complimentary assessment of your shape/ profile by logging on
to
http://www.psychogeometrics.com/onlinetest.php and
key in CYDJ as coupon code to waive the charges of the assessment. The
waiving of charges is valid until 15 Nov 2011.
Also,
Asia's final session of
Thinking with de Bono
will be held in Shanghai on 28 October 2011. Join
us before Dr. Edward de Bono retires from travelling to this
part of the world forever.
Helping Customers to Get from Where They
Are to Where They Want to Be
by c.j. Ng
Psychogeometrics® Licensee
Certified Facilitator, Six Thinking Hats®
Sheila is the
Key
Account Manager for one of those "nightmare"
Key Accounts, F-Tone Corp. While F-Tone produced huge
volumes in sales annually, their margins are rather thin.
In addition, their Procurement Director has been squeezing
Sheila for lower prices as part of their annual "cost-down"
initiative, or risk having that Key Account switching to other
competitors.
That's not all. As part of Shelia's company's initiative,
she would have to improve her service standards to enhance
customer satisfaction so as to achieve greater customer loyalty.
Unfortunately for Sheila, F-Tone has been quite a tough act to
follow as far as service is concerned. Some of their
"unreasonable" behaviours include:
-
Insisting
on changing product delivery dates, either by postponing
deliveries, OR by bringing forward the delivery dates.
As a Key Account, each F-Tone's delivery are measured in
tons, and changing those dates will cause lots of logistical
nightmare for Sheila;
-
Insisting on
shorter lead times that are much shorter than the industry
standard. Shortening those lead times might compromise
product quality;
-
Frequent spikes in
demand resulting in either Sheila's company trying to
respond to such sudden surges in production. When
Sheila's company is not able to deliver on time, F-Tone gets
the additional supplies from their back-up supplier, whose
quality is poorer, etc.
The above challenges can be
easily solved had F-Tone agreed to holding some buffer
inventory, which their Procurement Director flatly refused
whenever Sheila raised the matter due to the former's JIT
(Just-In-Time) policies. When Sheila is not able to
provide what her customer wants, her management starts to
perceive her as not "customer-centric" and not doing her best to
improve her customer's "experience" with the company.
Sheila is now
in a tight spot.
While she would like to keep the Key Account since they produced
large volumes, managing their expectations is becoming somewhat
impossible for her now. Sheila needs to seek creative solutions that will
win her
customer's way of thinking.
Know Thyself and Thy
Customer
As
Sun Tzu
puts it,
"Know yourself and know your adversary, a hundred battles
fought and not be imperiled in any" (知己知彼,百战不贻),
just that in this case, the customer is now the "adversary".
Since Sun Tzu also mentioned that "the best victory is
won without fighting" (不战而屈人之兵,善之善者也), customers are to be
won over without fighting them.
There are 2 aspects which you might need to know
about your customers:
- The
work that each contact person in your customer's
organisation does, and what is important to each of them;
and
- What are
the best ways to communicate with them
As in the above
fictitious scenario,
most sales people and Account Managers liaise with the
Purchasing or Procurement department most of the time.
Generally speaking, most Purchasing departments are
"gatekeepers" where their job is to ensure suppliers'
compliance to their company's policies and regulations.
They are detail-oriented and will strictly follow
procedures. In
Psychogeometrics® terminology,
they are a "Box".
Pls. see below for a brief explanation of the various
shapes/ communication styles:
-
Triangle/ Dominant.
These are the high-flying hotshots who are status
and power conscious. These are also people who
hates to waste time, and want to get straight to the
point. While different Dominant people will have
different levels of intelligence, most if not all of
them believe they are very smart and has the right
answer to most problems;
-
Box/ Analytical.
These are the people who likes facts and figures as
well as evidence and proof. They like to apply
rigour to testing and analysing test results.
Sometimes they see the trees but miss the entire
forest;
-
Rectangle/ Confused.
When people are transiting to a different job in a
different arena, or are taking on new
responsibilities, they sometimes can be in a
confused state as they are grasping the new rules of
the new game that they are playing. They are
inquisitive, fickle and are subjected to wild mood
swings;
-
Circle/ Social.
These are the people person who likes to make
friends with you. Their boss sometimes believe that
they socialise to much and work too little though;
-
Squiggle/ Creative.
Finally, we have the oddballs who always seem to
have new ideas and fresh perspectives in any given
situation. They are easily bored, and are always
looking for some kind of thrills and excitement in
whatever they are doing
You can get
a complimentary assessment of your shape/ profile by
logging on to
http://www.psychogeometrics.com/onlinetest.php
and key in CYDJ as coupon code to waive the charges of the assessment.
The waiving of charges is valid until 15 Nov 2011.
You can also refer to our
previous newsletter to
get a clearer understanding of these shapes/
communication styles.
The "Box"
customer seeks to make everybody comply to what he deems
are his company's policies, initiatives and objectives.
Anything that does not fit into the "Box's"
perception of "standard operating procedures" will be
viewed with suspicion.
When dealing
with the "Box"
customer, sales people will have to adapt and come prepared with
supporting facts, figures and evidence. If a sales person want to get the
"Box"
customer hold some buffer inventory, she would have to prepare the facts of the
costs of holding such inventory, and the precise calculations of the benefits of
holding such buffer inventory. This is something that many sales people
are not prepared to do, but if the "Box"
customer is not totally convinced, you won't be able to influence them to your
way of thinking.
Getting
Customers to Get to Where They Want to Be
To the seller, getting the customer to hold buffer inventory is a
great way to counteract against sudden changes in their production
schedules. To the buyer, however, holding excess inventory
means incurring additional costs. Both are right in their
opposing points-of-views. Sales people and Account Managers
will have to be careful NOT to end up in
arguments with customers.
When advocating customers to take actions, sales people might need
to understand 2 issues:
-
What are the causes of a particular
customer behaviour, such as refusing to take an action that will
improve their situation; and -
What are some of the objectives that the customer
needs to reach, both at the personal as well as at the
organisational level.
As such, here are some questions that you need to clarify, so as to
know the causes of your customers' actions and behaviours, as well
as the objectives that they want to achieve:
-
Have you asked the customer to do anything that deviates from
their "standard operating procedures" ? If yes, have you
helped them to reduce their risks and clarify their benefits in
doing so?
-
Is the customer a Decision Maker, or is he a
Decision Implementer? In
most cases,
the purchasing department belongs to the latter, and seek to
abide by the instructions given by the Decision Maker;
-
Are the things that you need the customer take action upon
within control of the customer? -
Have you developed the
relationship with
your customer such that he
trusts you enough to jointly
formulate solutions that benefit both parties?
Generating Creative Solutions to Difficult Customer Situations
When faced with
tough and challenging customer situations, sales
people tend to rely on their instincts and past experience to
resolve the situation. In most sales-related advice, it has
almost always been to go directly to the Decision Maker if your
customer are simply implementing other people's decisions. In
reality, it is easier said than done. The good news though, is
that there are other ways to help customers get from where they are,
to where they want to be.
Without jumping into any assumptions, the first thing
to clarify with the customer is "where they would want to go".
In the above story, the Procurement Director's objectives could be:
-
Make sure there's enough supplies as and when the
Production department needs it; Make sure the cost of
inventory and other aspects of the Total Costs of Procurement (TCOP)
remains low;
-
Make sure there are no complaints from anyone in the company
Having
these in mind, sales people would have to generate creative
solutions to solve often-contradictory objectives, which in this
case is to have on-demand supplies, yet have low costs of
inventory, AND still make everyone happy.
While it may be very
challenging to provide a solution to such a predicament, there have
been ways to reach such solutions depending on the industry, the
corporate cultures of both buyers and sellers, and the creative
perseverance of the sales person. The critical steps are:
Need help in helping your
customers get from where they are to where they want to be? Simply e-mail
info@directions-consulting.com or
call +86-136 7190 2505 or Skype:
cydj001 and arrange to buy me a mocha. All information
shall be kept in confidence.
(The
case story in the article are strictly fictitious. Any
resemblance to any real organisations, people or events are purely
coincidental)
Power Breakfast Hour: 19 Oct 2011
Helping Customers Get from Where They Are, to Where They Want to
Be
Join International
sales, leadership and strategic thinking consultant c.j. Ng in this Power
Breakfast Hour in Shanghai where you will find out:
-
How to build trust and rapport with demanding customers in difficult and challenging situations;
-
How to understand the causes of
bad customer behaviour, AND the objectives that you can help
them achieve;
and
-
How
to use some Lateral Thinking methods to create innovative
solutions for customers that work!
VENUE: Crowne Plaza Shanghai • 400 Panyu Road (near Fahuazhen
Road) • 上海银星皇冠酒店 • 番禺路 400 号 (靠法华镇路)
DATE: Wednesday, 19 Oct 2011
TIME: 08:00 a.m. - 10:00 a.m.
PRICE: RMB 300 ONLY!
To make this a more conducive discussion, we are expecting a small
group of about 15 people only. The room can only take in 18, so
please register early to avoid disappointments. Please e-mail your
registrations to sales@directions-consulting.com
You can also
get
a complimentary assessment of your shape/ profile by logging on to
http://www.psychogeometrics.com/onlinetest.php
and key in CYDJ as coupon code to waive the charges of the assessment. The
waiving of charges is valid until 15 Nov 2011.
Pls. check out our web sites
www.directions-consulting.com and
www.psycheselling.com/page4.html for more inspiration.
Need a Keynote Speaker for your Annual Conference?
Whether you are holding a conference for your regional staff,
resellers or even customers, we have the right speaker who can help
you deliver the spirit of your conference, and effect positive
changes to meet your goals.
The topics our speakers can
speak on include:
-
Price is NOT the Reason Why You Lost the Deal
-
Achieving Exceptional Customer Satisfaction,
Productivity and Talent Retention by Boosting Your Employee
Engagement
-
Using the Six Thinking Hats® to
Win More Sales and Get More Customers
-
Why Some Sales People Succeed While Others Fail?;
-
How to Lure Away Your Competitors' Key Accounts, and Make
Them Buy from You Instead?;
-
Improving Sales Productivity by Motivating the Sales Force;
Simply e-mail your requests
to
info@directions-consulting.com or call +86-21-6219 0021
for enquiries. Sample video and audio recordings available
upon requests.
Practical Tips for Managers:
Shirking (aka "I love you, but everyone else hates you")
By By Mark Murphy,
CEO of
Leadership IQ
Shirking is one of the most destructive conversations a manager can
have with employees. What is shirking?
It’s a conversation in which a manager is SUPPOSED to give some
constructive feedback to an employee (you know, something like “your
performance is falling short in these areas, let’s discuss how to
improve it, etc.”). But instead, what the manager says is
“Listen, I think you’re doing great, but you know how
our executives are, and THEY think you really need to
improve.”
Shirking is just that; it’s avoiding responsibility for delivering
tough feedback and instead dumping responsibility onto somebody else
(like upper management, or your boss, or the boss of another area).
In it's briefest form it becomes "I love you, but everyone
else hates you."
Any time we let someone else be the 'heavy' for telling an employee
they need to improve ("in my eyes you’re great, but for some reason
Pat thinks you do subpar work"), that’s shirking.
Shirking is partly damaging because it hurts the particular employee
who missed out on some important feedback, but it really causes harm
because it undermines your entire leadership team. It shows a
divided leadership team, it throws fellow leaders under the bus, and
it utterly destroys alignment. How can we all be pulling in the same
strategic direction when we don’t share the same standards and
expectations?
Leaders aren't just allowed to give feedback; they’re obligated to
give feedback. And more than that, they’re obligated to own that
feedback. Leaders are coaches with a fresh perspective; it's
their job to shed light on issues that employees may have missed.
But when we engage in Shirking, we avoid that critical part of our
job.
I know, it's a lot more fun to be everyone's friend. And so
Shirking seems like a good idea (this way, we can deliver the tough
feedback without getting the employee mad at us for delivering it).
But it never works out that way.
An important determinant of whether the employee will actually
listen to critical feedback is how much credibility they assign to
the person delivering the feedback. If they truly respect the
brains, performance and courage of their boss, they'll accept
his/her feedback. If they don't, they won’t. And
unfortunately, Shirking basically tells employees "I didn't have the
guts to take ownership of this feedback, so there’s really no reason
to respect me."
So test yourself. The next time you give someone feedback, ask
yourself "Am I taking ownership of this feedback? Or am I
passing the buck and making it sound like the feedback is really
coming from somebody else?"
Shirking is unnecessary, it's horribly damaging, and remember, if
you shirk and blame somebody else for the tough feedback you're
giving, it's only a matter of time before they do it back to you.
If you would like to get more and better ideas how to get your
managers be able to give direct and effective feedback, you can e-mail
info@directions-consulting.com or
call +86-136 7190 2505 or Skype:
cydj001 and arrange to buy me a mocha. All information
shall be kept in confidence.
About PsycheSelling.com
Sales... ....the lifeblood of a company, a matter of "life
and death", survival or extinction. Indeed, something that
needs to be studied, applied and re-modified consistently.
Yet today,
-
many companies
still don't have a coherent approach as to how they can generate
more sales and achieve better margins;
-
many sales
people are still lying to their customers so that they can meet
their targets at the end of the month;
-
many customers
are still waiting ethical and professional sales people to help
them find out their real needs, and provide solutions that work
Psyche-Selling TM is set up so that companies and
sales people can make healthy profits and STILL provide genuine
solutions to customers.
Psyche-Selling TM would like to create an
environment where customers can trust sales people to give them what
they want, and NOT be pushed with all kinds of products and
services. In return, customers will become loyal fans of these
ethical and professional sales people, and repay them many fold for
the long-term.
Psyche-Selling TM will not rest, until the above
is achieved. Not just in China. Not just in Asia. But
everywhere where buying and selling takes place.
Psyche-Selling TM is a wholly-owned brand of
Directions Management Consulting Pte
Ltd that specialises in the field of improving
sales performance by enhancing the performance of the entire sales
team. Apart from the regular "selling skills training",
Psyche-Selling ng TM
conducts pre- and post-training analysis, interviews, monitoring and
reviews, working closely with managers and even senior management,
to deliver real improvements in sales leadership and performance.
Hence, Psyche-Selling
TM would like to be known as the preferred choice
of outstanding and remarkable clients, and pride ourselves as such.
We will also be continuing to assist our clients achieve greater
heights in 2009 and beyond.
Enquiries and suggestions, pls. e-mail
info@psycheselling.com or visit
www.psycheselling.com
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