Your Value To Your Customer

Most companies have a value proposition. They have some product(s) or service(s) that they believe will benefit their customers. While this value proposition is a great thing to be able to articulate, it isn’t what your real value to your customer is or should be. The customer, on the other hand, wants to believe that they will see value from those products or services. But is that what they really want? My experience is that the value that they see comes more from how you do business with them rather than the actual product or service you’re providing.

The key is to go beyond a value proposition statement and do what you can to help the customer solve their problems. So how do you do that? To begin with, your value begins by getting to know your customer. Get to know them deeply. Know what they do, why they do it, and how they do it. Know what their strategic plan is; learn what their problems are. Many of the problems you can help solve are based in them getting from where they are to achieving their goals. Knowing those goals and why they are important is key here, and will differentiate you from the competition that doesn’t try to understand them.

To do this you have be in there talking with them. Find out what they are trying to do and why. Be an Excellent Listener. Try to get to know their problems before they become a business opportunity. Help shape the way they want the solution to look. For this to happen it will require an investment of your time so that you can understand what they are trying to solve.

The truth is that what customers really want are partners that can help them solve problems. They have plenty of vendors trying to sell them something. So what this really means is that you must move beyond the transactional sale of a product or service and become a business partner and a trusted agent. If you are able to do that then you will increase Your Value To Your Customer.

We want to hear what you think. Leave a comment and let’s start a discussion.

Copyright © 2015 The Cobalt Group, LLC. All rights reserved.

The Hot Wash

Almost every evolution that occurred in my Navy career was hot washed. That is a military term for reviewing the lessons learned. We debriefed every flight, every exercise, and almost every evolution. We looked at what we did right and what we did wrong. It never made us perfect at what we were doing but when those lessons learned were incorporated into the next event, it made for fewer and fewer mistakes. This especially helped in the planning phases.

Since joining the corporate world I have not seen that done very often. In my first job as a sales rep I went to my boss after the first win to see if she wanted a debrief. She asked me if we won and I said yes. Then she asked what there was to debrief. Being new to the corporate world, I guessed that winning meant not needing to review things. I was used to hot washing everything so I figured it was how things were done. After my first loss I went back with the same thing and the response was about the same with the exception of her asking what I would do differently the next time. That was the extent of the hot wash.

In successive jobs I have had much the same experience. Most of these were not small companies but big multi-billion dollar corporations. Even the company that had a process for what I call a hot wash did not enforce it, nor did it ever really even ask for one. I offered to do one and while they did agree to it, I would have thought that they would have been more interested to know why we lost a $30M+ opportunity. So I put the presentation together and gave it. They were grateful and said all the right things, but nothing really changed.

So why should you do a hot wash? That could be a rhetorical question, but worth addressing nonetheless. All of our lives we should learn from our mistakes. We all make them and nothing is perfect. But, if we don’t take a look at what we are doing right and what we are doing wrong we will set ourselves up to possibly repeating the same mistakes again. And in business, those mistakes make us look bad, at best, and can cost a lot of money, at the worst.

Hot washes shouldn’t be finger pointing exercises either. Establish a formal process to review every bid you make. Look at what you did right. Reinforce those actions. Give praise to those responsible for it. Next, look at what you did wrong. Don’t adopt the zero defect mentality over these errors. Figure out what you need to do to keep from doing it again the next time. No phase of any business venture goes perfectly. Some mistakes may not have had any impact this time, but it doesn’t mean that they may not hurt you the next time.

Take the time to establish a process for reviewing your business successes and losses. Be objective and be honest in your critiques. Leave your egos out of it too. That is the only way to get better. And in the long run, doing a hot wash will pay big dividends.

Happy New Year to you all and our wish is for much success for you in 2015!

We want to hear what you think. Leave a comment and let’s start a discussion.

Copyright © 2015 The Cobalt Group, LLC. All rights reserved.

Roadblocks to Results

What keeps you or your business from being successful? What keeps you from achieving the results you set out to achieve? This is a topic that books have been written about but I will try to address at a high level view in this post. My list here will not be all inclusive. There are too many independent variables in each situation we face to list them all here. The ones I will discuss below are ones that seem to be more prevalent in my experience and observations. So what are some of the Roadblocks to Results?

·         Having no goal. If we don’t start with the end in mind then it is more likely that we will not get there. As simple as that seems it is not too uncommon that I run across situations where there is no real goal.

·         No long range planning. Too often we worry about the near term requirements to the neglect of the long term goal(s). We then make decisions based on what are more immediate needs vice the longer term needs we have. That doesn’t mean that near term needs aren’t important. But don’t make all of your decisions based on the more immediate issues to the neglect or impact on your long term goals.

·         Lack of adaptability. Another roadblock is being unable to adapt to changes in the business environment. Things change and unless we either predict the change or adapt quickly we run the risk of getting left behind.

·         Getting sidetracked. Seems obvious but letting other distractions interfere can keep you from achieving your goals. If you pursuing a certain goal and another shiny object appears it takes good business discipline to stay focused. There may be times when you want to change direction and go for the new opportunity but it needs to be weighed heavily and it needs to align with the long term goals.

·         Relying on technology to solve problems. We all love technology and the way it is supposed to make our lives ‘simpler’. But there are problems out there that technology doesn’t solve. A look at your goals and the objectives you laid out to reach them should indicate whether your problem is a technological problem or business problem. One example is…will that new CRM database help you achieve your goals? Or will it create unintended consequences across the company? Often, it’s the basic blocking and tackling that leads to victory.

·         Looking for other examples to emulate vice solutions for you. Don’t look to the example of others to simply cut and paste a solution into your environment. They may have had a very similar problem but the cause of the problem may be different. Make sure it is an exact fit before just copying a solution used elsewhere.

As I said, this topic has had many books devoted to it. My aim is not to write a book about it but to get you to take a hard look at what Roadblocks to Results are keeping you from achieving your goals.

We want to hear what you think. Leave a comment and let’s start a discussion.

Copyright © 2014 The Cobalt Group, LLC. All rights reserved.

Clichéd Phrases Don’t Motivate

Every profession has them. A lot of people in leadership roles use them. They are Cliched Phrases and they Don’t Motivate. Some of them are downright catchy but regardless of how well-intentioned the phrase may have seemed, they don’t give the employees what they really need – the support, tools, and means to do their jobs. This is especially true when used by someone in a leadership role that offers little more than a clichéd phrase vice real help.

But in every phase of my career I have heard them. And, I am sorry to report, I have even used them a couple of times. Some of them are cute, even funny. Witty, maybe. But none of them ever helped me do my job better. In truth, everyone I have talked to about this is turned off by cheap clichés.

So here is a question. How many of you have ever been motivated to do better by one of these clichéd sound bites? I really don’t know who they inspire other than perhaps the person quoting them. They don’t provide anything to make anyone successful. And to the persons using these quotes – do you really think you’re motivating anyone with them? Are you making sure your employees are equipped properly to do their jobs?

While I have seen them everywhere in my various career paths, the ones that stand out the most are the ones I have heard in my sales/BD career. Here are a few of the types of phrases about which I am speaking:

Are you In It to Win It?

Because everyone likes losing.

The difference between try and triumph is umph!

Only with bad spelling.

This quarter is our most important quarter!

Every quarter is the most important.

We gotta make the number.

Oh, I thought you were kidding about that.

I piss excellence.

That must hurt.

Do you have the juice?

Yeah, which flavor do you want.

Seriously, are goals achieved through catchy phrases? I’d love to know one that is (other than a goal of creating catchy phrases). These clichés are NOT a strategy. Don’t get me wrong, there are some great motivational phrases out there but a motivational phrase without the means to accomplish the goal are useless.

This is equally true when dealing with customers. I did not seek out a career in sales. It found me. I was on a colleague’s sales call with him at the very beginning of my sales career and in the meeting he says, “So, Mr. Customer…what keeps you awake at night.” I almost burst out laughing. I’m pretty sure I cast a sideways look at him. I can’t tell you how many times I have heard people say that you need to ask them what keeps them awake at night. I know what the intent there is but I would never use that phraseology. So I made a vow to try NEVER to sound like a clichéd sales rep. I think I have done pretty well with that vow. Customers don’t want clichéd phrases either. They want help and they want results.

So, what clichéd phrases top your list? And “at the end of the day” did they motivate you?

We want to hear what you think. Leave a comment and let’s start a discussion.

Copyright © 2014 The Cobalt Group, LLC. All rights reserved.

Failing Our Leaders

Right out of college I was hired to be a supervisor in a poultry processing plant (yes, I studied chickens in college). With the ink on my degree still wet, I was now in charge of 42 people at the seasoned age of 21. I received no leadership or management training other than a four week indoctrination where I spent one week in each of the four major areas of the business to learn what they do.

Then I was thrown to into the fire of ‘management’. With absolutely no formal training on how to lead people I reverted to what I learned from my dad as I was growing up. He was a military man and very strict. I learned pretty quickly that his way of raising us did not necessarily work in everywhere. The result – I failed. It was ugly. And now I look back and can see how I failed the people that reported to me.

I entered the Navy after that and during that time I received some of the best leadership training I have ever had. Throughout my career I had formal training and on the job training. The military invested in my training. What was taught to us in the classroom was only the starting point for leadership training. But having that formal framework gave me the foundation for each job I have had since. Those jobs, in turn, gave me the opportunity to apply what I had learned and to grow as a leader. I made a lot of mistakes but I always had good mentors that guided me through the learning point of each mistake. Because of this it was very rare that a mistake was repeated.

Keep in mind that when you put a person in a leadership role of any kind you are putting them there to help the people reporting to them do their jobs better and be successful. But are you helping your leader do a better job? If you don’t train them then you are doing them and your company a huge disservice. There is really no reason not to invest in them. Would you hire someone to do a job for you without training them on how to do it? I don’t think so. So why do we not invest in our leaders? Why is it expected that just because someone is promoted into a leadership role that they immediately know how to lead?

They need training, especially those that are in their first supervisory role. This training can be in a formal classroom setting and/or with a coach or mentor. Ideally, it is formal training followed up with some degree of leadership coaching. But they need to be given the right tools to do their job just like anyone else in your company. Sure, there is cost to it for both the formal training and the coaching, but what is the cost of having someone in a role that was never trained to do it? Can you afford to have someone learn it as they go?

So when do you invest in them? As I discussed in a previous blog, the time to do this is when they get their first supervisory/management role. Invest in them early and the return on that investment will be greater. With proper training/coaching they can become good leaders and help your business grow. Invest early because it is also very hard to correct improper training and ingrained, poor habits. And the damage that can be done to your business will cost you in the long run if we continue to Fail Our Leaders.

We want to hear what you think. Leave a comment and let’s start a discussion.

Copyright © 2014 The Cobalt Group, LLC. All rights reserved.

If I Become King

We all do this. We sit around with friends and colleagues and complain about the way things are being done where we work, and about the people in charge. And we always have a better way to do it.

Back before the earth cooled I was a young junior officer at my first actual job in the Navy (at the ripe old age of 25) after receiving my wings.  I was the branch officer responsible for the care and feeding of 27 aviation electricians. It wasn’t my first leadership role. I’d already held a couple of those before I entered the Navy. And like a lot of young (and sometimes even old) guys I sat around with my pals and we often complained about how screwed up things were and how we would do things differently if we were the King. So I decided to keep a log of things I liked and disliked about the way things were being done, and what I liked and disliked about the leadership styles of the senior officers with whom I served. Most of the comments were bullet points about this and that, and over time it filled about 15 or so pages. I was determined that If I Become King I would do things differently. I would do things right!

About ten years later, when I was put in my first department head job, I recalled that book and pulled it out. I was no longer a junior officer. So as I read through it I was amazed at some of the things that I had written. I was amazed that some of what I had written was still valid. I was even more amazed that about 75% of what I thought needed changing was due to utter naiveté. Of course, when I was younger I thought I had all the answers. But I now had more life and work experience and, while some of what I felt needed to be changed or incorporated into what I wanted my leadership style to be was still pertinent, a lot of what I thought needed changing was due more to my lack of knowledge and experience than a process or leadership style that was erroneous.

On the surface, it would appear that if about 75% of what I wrote down to change was wrong then it was a failed exercise. I don’t think so. I did learn some things from that exercise that have stuck with me since:

·         It’s easy to complain about something when we don’t have the whole picture.

·         Not everything that we think is being done wrong is actually being done wrong.

·         Many things we don’t like have nothing to do with the efficiency or effectiveness of what’s being done, it’s more about our personal preference.

·         Just because we become leaders doesn’t mean we’re done learning. On the contrary. I’ve learned more about leadership while being a leader than I ever learned in a water cooler conversation or in a leadership training class.

There are times when I wish I had kept a similar journal when I started my corporate career. It would be interesting to see if the results would be the same. I still see things being done that I don’t agree with but now I am more able to discern whether it is an actual problem that needs to be addressed, or just something that I would personally do differently If I Become King.

We want to hear what you think. Leave a comment and let’s start a discussion.

Copyright © 2014 The Cobalt Group, LLC. All rights reserved.

When They Say “NO”

It doesn’t matter what you do for a living, there will come a time (many, actually) when a customer will say NO. It could be that what you are offering doesn’t meet their needs, they have gone with a competitor, or decided that they don’t want, or aren’t prepared, to make a decision at the moment. As disappointing as it can be, it’s not the end of the world and there are ways to turn it into a positive.

Years ago when I was selling software I was trying to get on a couple of teams for a major government outsourcing procurement. I was trying to get on two of the teams in particular. I only ended up on one of them. Nothing unusual there. So over the next 12 months or so of the source selection process I stayed in touch with the other team and actually worked with them on another program. When the contract was awarded our team was not selected, but the other team I tried to get on was. I called and congratulated them and moved on to closing other business. A few months later they called me. The software provider they had originally chosen was not able to be used in that environment and they were now in search of a replacement. It would now be a competitive runoff between us and two other vendors. Back in the game!

The point here is that a NO is not always the end of the story. There are ways to handle a NO that may keep the relationship alive. So what should you do when you hear NO?

Ask for feedback. Why were your products or services not selected? Did your company lack something the customer wanted? What could you do better the next time? No one wants to hear criticism but if it helps win future business it is worth hearing.

Thank them for their consideration. No one will win everything they attempt. But if you at least got to be considered, be thankful. And let the customer know that you appreciate their time too.

Stay in touch. Maintain contact with them, especially if you think there is potential to do business down the road. Remember a recent blog of mine where I discussed building long term relationships. Customers don’t want to feel like the only reason you’re there is to sell them something. Sometimes a loss may lead to another opportunity to help that customer in a different and/or even bigger way. So stay in touch. Send them pertinent information as needed. Keep trying to learn their business. But don’t be a stalker. Make your interactions with them relevant.

Also remember, getting told NO may be a blessing in disguise. Not every deal is a good deal. You will have to determine how to react to a NO. My experience has shown me that staying professional and in contact after a NO built a longer term relationship that in some cases reaped bigger rewards.

Oh, the shootout with the other two vendors…we won and it was the biggest software sale of my career, and the biggest in that company for the year. I am still in touch with some of those teammates even 12+ years later.

We want to hear what you think. Leave a comment and let’s start a discussion.

Copyright © 2014 The Cobalt Group, LLC. All rights reserved.