Trust

Pre-empting conversations

Affirmative action, client management, Fear, Trust

While my experience has been sales and then marketing, I also carry a revenue responsibility.

When you carry a revenue responsibility, managing client engagement becomes a major task.

A lot of times deciphering the why behind the what becomes a tight rope walk. Especially when you are selling services, where, unlike in the case of a product, the boundaries are not clearly defined, managing the gap between the customer expectations and the delivery of services is an every day challenge

One thing I have found useful is to pre-empt the conversation. You don’t give a chance to the customer to come and complain. You go and tell her the challenge, what could be the impact and how you think you are going to solve it. Then you ask the customer for suggestions so that she sees herself as superior to you, which helps manage her ego . Also since you have informed her of the problem, before she could complain, she is now partly responsible for finding the solution. This affirmative action also increases trust.

A lot of the out-bursts which happen when a customer complains, can be completely avoided if we pre-empt things. However most service delivery people are scared to do this out of fear, that the customer will fire them, not realizing that the firing in a complaint situation is even worse.

If you are in services, its always a good idea to pre-empt the conversation if you want to be successful.

Till next time then.

Carpe Diem!!!

Generating “Trust” with the client – simple steps

B2B, Fear, Habits, Sales, Trust

When you are entering a new account as a sales person, “Trust” is by far the most difficult thing for you to get. If the customer has already been using your company’s product or service, then there’s some amount of trust that gets bestowed on you.

Especially if your company has done a good job or the sales person before you has done a good job, then the customer is more favourable to talk with you. However the customer still has to trust “YOU”

On the other hand if the account is new to your company and you as the sales person are also involved in creating the account then it becomes all the more important that you gain trust with the prospect fast. One of the biggest things which hampers a sale is TRUST. Price, quality of the product / service etc. are all issues which come into [play after the person trusts you.

Some of the simplest things I have observed for building trust are simple old fashioned things

  1. Keep your word – if you say you will do something by a given day or time – DO IT
  2. Arrive before the scheduled time always – No one likes to be kept waiting and that too for a sales person – there will be times where things can go wrong inspite of all your planning – in that case inform the customer well in advance
  3. Communicate every step of the way – even if you don’t have a solution ready for the problem – which will happen many times in your career – keep the customer informed that you have a problem and you are working to solve – the customer is also answerable to someone else and if he doesn’t have information he will get more frustrated. The customer may get angry with you for a little while but after he/she vents their anger, they will still be friends. Most of the time the people get scared of the customer and try to hide. This kind of Fear will only create problems in your long term relationships.
  4. Don’t consider your customer as an adversary – Till you get the order, everyone is very nice to the customer. The challenge starts when they become a Customer. The customer has certain expectations and your delivery folks have their own challenges and any objection by the customer becomes a “me versus you” situation. You have to make your team understand , that in B2B situations especially, the customer has more at stake than you because of her reputation at the organisation is at stake. If you can look at it as a joint effort then it solves the problem.

None of these steps have any technology related issues, they don’t need any hi-tech software or equipment etc. These are just human habits and behaviours which you need to cultivate and slowly you will observe people will automatically gravitate towards you and start trusting you.

Till next time then.

Carpe Diem!!!

Riding the elephant – using the power of relationships – 2

Marketing, Marketing Stamina, Product Management, Symbiotic relationship, Trust

While I wrote yesterday on one of my favourite ways for a small unknown company to grow big, by working with an international giant, trying to make inroads into the country, this process is not without its pitfalls.

First – Its a long process where you have to first find the right company, then the right product for you in this company and then right people who are willing to interact with you and take you forward. You have to make investments without any commitment from the principal company that they will help you get business. Even if they make any commitments, it has no value if they themselves are not able to get business. I have invested some times, almost a year and a half before we actually started getting cases where the sales people started taking us and putting us in front of the customer. But once the deal flow started it was a huge amount of business. You need to have stamina to last that long period.

Next you have to build trust with the sales folks, the technical folks etc. Not everyone will be happy to assist you. Not everyone will want to help you. In a lot of cases they may also see you as competition. In addition sometimes the sales people may want to get the deal at you expense, because they have their target to meet.

So as a rule of thumb look when you are looking at these companies, you need to consider what is their partner program. Are they focussed on building a partner ecosystem. If they are a partner focused company then they will have global policies on handling partner related issues and the chances of you getting short changed are reduced.

Third – the product or service of this company should actually sell in your market. To add to it the customer should be willing to take your add-on product or service with the main product. I have had many instances where the company we thought had a great product did not move in the Indian market at all.

Last but not the least you have to remember that they ( the elephant that you are wanting to align with ) are in it for their interests, not yours. So they will take decisions keeping that in mind. Sometimes those decisions will go against your interests. Nothing personal. You will just need to hop off this elephant onto another one.

Irrespective, the relationships you build with people based on the philosophy of giving first then expecting will help you a long way. Like if you feed the elephant before climbing its back, the elephant also takes care to ensure you have a safe ride.

Till next time then.

Carpe Diem!!!

Self Trust

Habits, self esteem, Trust

One of the biggest boost for self esteem is when you achieve those small small targets on a daily basis.

When you don’t hit a commitment which you made to yourself, it is more damaging to your self esteem and you start doubting yourself .

If you sub consciously start doubting yourself on your ability to achieve the small things, then you will not trust yourself to achieve the big things.

As Stephen Covey writes in his book the Speed of Trust, the onus of creating Trust starts with the self.

I have written multiple times earlier also, if you can take micro steps that B. J. Fogg talks about in his book Tiny Habits, the compounded impact is massive for your own self esteem. Once your self esteem grows , you create new capabilities and you tend to start getting more confidence. Once you get more confident you start looking at even bigger challenges to achieve.

That is a positive snowball effect and it all starts with your self trust.

This is all for today.

Till next time then.

Carpe Diem!!!