Friday night I was relaxing from a great week when I was hit between the eyes (figuratively) by a very good friend of mine. He asked me what I’m doing differently to drive business in a tough economy. I was actually able to list 4 things that I am doing differently, but they were all driven by survival and not necessarily driven by some strategically driven plan.
As I was reflecting on the conversation it reminded me of how we drive change with our customer base. Because of the need to survive, I have a need and motivation to change what I’m doing. I need to prospect more. I need to be more persistent with my current client base to expand what I do. I need to change my approach to selling with more visuals on return on investment. My prospective clients are resistant to the changes (contractual agreements) until they understand why they need to invest. They must see the opportunity or they see investing in their team’s development as an expense or threat.
In your business, are you seeing the same thing? Are your customer’s becoming more resistant to supporting your solution because they haven’t been there before? We are still asking them to change with every proposal we put on their desk. Our customers may still see the proposal as a threat, but by making it a joint plan, we improve our odds of getting agreement. The next step after you have an agreed upon plan is execution of those plans. That will involve working with your customers in a new and different way. Just because the manager has agreed on a plan, it doesn’t mean the others in the organization will not see it as a threat. If you believe that the others on the team will support it just because the boss mandates it, take a look at yourself and your teammates. Has your boss asked you to use a sales process or a joint planning process? Have you warmly embraced the process upfront? You are asking customer to change. What are you going to do differently to help the customer get comfortable and support the changes you are asking them to make?
To drive change the way the customer works (implement the joint plan) you need to go through the same process that you did with their boss. The process works, and the more of the drivers and the fence sitters you can jointly plan with, and execute the plan with, the easier your job becomes. You are at the tipping point. Be persistent. What are you personally going to do, to drive change with your customer?
