Brain Vibe

I’ve come across a number of posts recently from social media consultants about the difficulty they face when competing for business against new entrants of social media experts.  I also had an interesting conversation with an agency about what to do when the customer does not take your advice and then blames you for the failure at the end of the project.  In each of these instances at various points of your customer relationships you face challenges of customers making what we consider bad choices.  We often take the approach of trying to educate the customer on why they are wrong and usually we lose in the end.  Here’s the secret, customers make bad choices because we have failed to connect.

Seth Godin spoke elegantly when he said in a recent post,  “Too often we close the sale before we even open it.”

As much as we are called upon for our expertise, the customer has their own preconceived notions about how to go about being successful.  They have as much experience or more in their career and role, the are well regarded in their company.  They need our help, but we are there to make them succeed through flawless execution. We may know more about a topic or approach.  We may even have a better way of doing things.  We know what is best, isn’t that why we are talking to them or working on their project?  But, what is really happening in these situations is that we haven’t really given the customer the right choice.  They haven’t been part of the exchange of ideas.  They don’t understand us.

It is easy to blame the customer for bad choices whether it is who they choose to run a strategic project or change the project plan to something that fails.  In the then, the failure was ours and we need to take some responsibility for that.  We could have done better.  Here are some things to consider to help you customer make better choices.

From a sales engagement perspective, positioning against a competitor is a tricky business.  You certainly want to understand who is out there and how you compare, so ask.  However, you also have to realize that there are some things that are difficult to recognize during the decision process.  Budget is at times at the heart of a decision, but a couple thousand dollars usually doesn’t make or break who wins.  There are things I’ve found while on the client side that may shed light on why you lose in a bid.

• Inability to solve the problem – After lengthy discussions about the problem faced, the consultant comes back with a boiler plate proposal and cost without aligning to the conversation and showing how the proposal benefits the customer.
• Inappropriate references – Successful projects are shown and customer references provided but they don’t fit with the clients business or problem.
• Passing the “beer test” – I had an executive discount a highly successful and experienced consultant simply because he couldn’t work with them. He just didn’t click with them.  He even agreed that they were spot on for the project.
• Poor or Adequate past performance – Clients may not be fully satisfied with past work or the working relationship to consider continuing.  A project may have been completed and good feedback came back, but the customer was not wowed.

Now that you have the project, it doesn’t stop there.  Building and nurturing the relationship have to continue into the project.  The proposal for the project is typically a rough outline.  You still need to help the customer through the process.  As a client, the best consultants followed these practices.

• Understand how the client thinks a project should be carried out and why
• Be prepared to show how the client’s approach has been successful or unsuccessful in other situations
• Recognize that the client is influenced by internal culture, resources, and past experience that may hinder your the project or ideas
• Be flexible to utilize customer ideas and augment them to improve results
• Recognize that if the client does not choose you or rejects your idea you missed something about the project
• Guide the customer to your approach by helping them realize this is the best option
• Do not 0utright reject customer input or tell the customer they are wrong

It may take a bit more time, but you’ll be rewarded for your ability to know your customer and have them know you.

Filed under: customer relationship, sales, Business, client decision, client engagement, client relationship, Consultant, consulting, Customer, customer experience, customer relationship, customer service, customerservice, Decision making, decision process, Marketing and Advertising, project management, proposal, relationship, sales engagement, sales process, Seth Godin