 | Help Create Value to Your Client
James Feldman, CITE, CPIM, CPT, MIP
Certified Facilitator |
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On a typical day, which of the following takes up most of your time:
- dealing with difficult people
- coming up with productive ideas
- meeting that accomplish little
- paperwork
- using skills to achieve corporate objectives?
What issues or questions might you create to rattle the cages of the people you work with (including yourself)?
Can you honestly say that without serious attention to some of these issues your organization can continue to grow, combat competition, and maintain profitability?
If your idea were a football team, what would be your strongest and weakest positions?
Who would be able to solve your most stubborn work problem: a master psychologist, a venture capitalist, and an enforcer for the mob?
Today's management just isn't what it used to be. And tomorrow the person you talk to is NOT the decision-maker. So you MUST motivate the person you are talking to get to the next person who will manage even less and care less about you and more about what we can do for their career.
We work best these days when we function as thinkers...independent problem solvers...rather than waiting for higher levels management to do our thinking for us. So you need to stay in alignment with the organization's objectives. You must put forth more effort to get the sale. It does not matter if you lose the sale because of indifference or you were too aggressive. In both cases you LOST the sale. You need to build trust with the client. You need to be their best solution to the current business problem. You are not to give away the store. You are not to negotiate a lower price without getting something in return so make sure you are selling what you believe is the BEST solution. If not move away and focus on someone else. For you to sell you need to be highly trustworthy. People buy from people they like.
Pretend that you need the money or your kids won't eat. Pretend that if you do not get the sale you will be out on the street. Pretend that you have the cure for cancer and you MUST get the patient to accept a non-traditional approach that you KNOW will work.
No matter what you are selling you are the only element that your client will know. You are personally accountable to them. You are the catalyst that is bringing both together. You need to invest more time in data exchange and doing more to keep the communications channels open...and then they will buy from you.
Help Create Value
Organizations exist to create value for stakeholders.
Who is the stakeholder in the organization that is the decision-maker? Find that person. You are trying to offer value that will beat the competition by providing answers or solutions. From problems that slowed the process to building the organization or increasing profitability. Personal and corporate return on investment (ROI). Value creation must be part of your culture.
You must weave it into your day to day work habits and communication. It needs to influence your work consciousness at every level...and you need to foster this need on your clients.
Ask questions instead of selling. Understand their needs first and then find a solution. LISTEN not talk.
Clarify which activities drive value in their mind...not costs. No one will complain about your fees if you can show them you were a worthwhile investment with a large ROI.
To do this you must find out how you can have a positive influence on the value drivers. Be conscious of how your presentation might cut costs or increase productivity. Or generate more cash. What can WE do to boost productivity? Build sales? Delight customers? Think like the owner. Think like you owned the business. Think about the person you are talking to and why they are listening.
The truth is that value gets determined deep inside organizations by people just like you. They have a life. They may have a family. Value creation occurs at all levels. Decisions do not!
Value is created by how well the people on the front line do their jobs. At the same time they ask "What is in it for me?" "Why care?"
It is your job to make their job more secure. You have to show them that you will not let them down. Your success depends on their success. You are a partner not a vendor. The creation of value, and your contribution to it, is the very thing that delivers the paycheck.
Raising your client's prosperity is the surest way to raise your own.
