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Selling? Don’t. Become a Trusted Advisor Instead

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Selling? Don’t. Become a Trusted Advisor Instead

Posted on April 24, 2015 at 2:33 pm.

Written by John O'Connor

Many of our B2B customers struggle with the challenge of turning their sales people from mere order takers into true relationship managers. Or better still: into a ‘Trusted Advisor’.

This is particularly true of companies who sell to large and complex clients. I’m talking here about situations where a large account generates annual revenues of €1m (or £ or $) or more, often as part of a long-term contract.

The same challenges apply to smaller accounts but the dynamics of large accounts and big deals are a little different. For starters, winning a 5-year or 7-year contract worth €5-10m a year is always an expensive and long-drawn out sales process. Bid teams are often assembled, and may spend months (or even years) working on a bid. Service buyers often start with a long-list of potential suppliers, whittle it down to a short-list and then have a ‘bake-off’ between the final two. The worst position of all for a bidder is to end up coming second, as they may end up with bid costs running into seven figures with nothing to show for it at the end.
 


 

Knowing the Decision Makers

It’s critically important to qualify any opportunity properly. A key question – probably THE key question – to answer during the qualification process is “How well do we know the decision-makers?”

If the answer is “Not very well” or even “Actually, we have no idea who the real decision-makers are” then the right answer is probably to decline to bid. If you do decide to continue, do so in the knowledge that you are unlikely to win. The winners are often insiders, people who already have the ear of the chief executive, or who are known to the Board. So if you do end up coming second, don’t complain about ‘the old boys network’ working against you. The reason you lost was because the people making the decision were asking different questions to the ones you answered in the Request For Proposal (RFP). Questions like “Do I trust this person?” and “Can I rely on the team to transform my business?” or even “If this all goes horribly pear-shaped, am I likely to lose my job?”

You may think that the evaluation criteria that the buyer has shared with you is what determines the decision. Don’t be fooled. Many buying decisions are made independently of the stated evaluation criteria, and quite often the scores are adjusted after the event to fit the decision.
 

The Importance of being a Trusted Advisors

Ultimately, decision-makers spend big money in the expectation that it will transform their business. And because there is a strong emotional component in the decision-making process (their reputations and jobs may be at stake) they base their decisions on an assessment of the individuals making the sales pitch – possibly more so than the product or solution on offer. That’s where it’s important to know the decision-makers and be seen as a trusted advisor by them – a true ‘relationship manager’ as opposed to a bidder or ‘order-taker’.

You won’t become a trusted advisor overnight. You first have to build credibility with the client, and be seen as a person who can add value outside of a pure technical or sales role. You have to spend time with them and be able to put yourself into the shoes of the CEO and understand the business issues that he or she is facing.

Trusted advisors are not meek. They are comfortable having robust conversations with senior executives and are not afraid to challenge them. Similarly, good senior executives are happy to be challenged, as long as they think you have a well-thought through point of view, and are acting in their best interests. That requires integrity, an intimate knowledge of the company, a business perspective rather than a technical perspective, and a genuine desire to help solve the problems faced by the business.
 

Reinvigorating your Sales Team

I’ll leave you with a final thought. If you are managing a sales team, be aware that not everybody in your team is capable of becoming a trusted advisor. For some, no amount of training or up-skilling will help them make the leap from ‘order-taker’ to true ‘relationship manager’. If you’re a CEO or Sales Director and you think this might be an issue in your organisation, you will need to bring in some new blood. Excellent sales directors are great at motivating their people but they are also ruthless when they feel a sales manager does not have the capacity to become a trusted advisor.
 

To find out more about turning your sales team members into Trusted Advisors, click on the image below. Better still, contact us here.

Customer at the Heart
 
 

Tags: account management, b2b, relationships, request for proposal, RFP, sales, trust, trusted advisor, trusted advisors

5 Generic Actions to Drive up your Relationship NPS Scores

Posted on April 15, 2015 at 2:38 pm.

Written by John O'Connor

We run B2B customer assessments for large corporate clients in the Netherlands and elsewhere. Very often I get asked questions like this after we deliver the customer feedback to senior management:

“OK, you’ve told us what our customers think of us, but what do we do about it now?”

“Tell us what we do in the next few weeks so that we don’t lose momentum.”

So here’s what I tell them:

1. BRIEF YOUR PEOPLE.

Typically, you need to brief at two levels and both are equally important:

– Executive Team. The senior executives in your organisation need to ‘own’ the overall results. If the customer feedback is negative or requires fundamental change, only the executive team can decide on the appropriate actions.

– Account Managers. These are the people who need to ‘own’ the results at account level. They are also the people you need to set up and run the account feedback sessions (see below).

Make sure to get the senior executives to read all the verbatim comments and see if their summary of the top issues agrees with the Deep-Insight analysis (they will understand the context better than we can). The most effective way of increasing Customer Relationship Quality (CRQ) and NPS scores is to have the programme driven by the executive team. Without the drive and passion at this level, the programme will fail.

2. DISCUSS THE RESULTS WITH YOUR CLIENTS.

Typically this happens in two stages:

– Stage 1. Within 2 weeks of the assessment results being delivered, you should get a general communication to all customers that you invited to give feedback. This should include a general ‘Thank You’ message for participating in the assessment (OK, not everybody completed it – our completion rates are typically 35-40% – but let’s not be mean!) as well as a message that their account manager will be in touch to arrange a feedback session to discuss the results (the overall results plus the specific results for their account)

– Stage 2. Within 8 weeks (or whatever target you set – but you must set a target), the account managers should have completed face-to-face meetings with all key customers. Ideally, they will have used that discussion to create a ‘Joint Action Plan’ setting out what both parties need to do, in order to address any issues unearthed in the assessment. Remember that the actions are on both sides – the account manager may need the client to change certain things as well.

3. FEED THE RESULTS INTO THE ANNUAL BONUS SCHEME.

If you haven’t done so already, think about incorporating the CRQ or NPS scores into account managers’ annual targets and bonus plans. If you have done so already, pay out the bonuses! This is probably the second most important driver of success in any customer experience programme. What gets measured and rewarded, gets done.

4. PLAN THE ACTIONS.

Again, do this at two levels:

– At corporate level. These are typically the key themes mentioned in the verbatim comments. Choose one or two big initiatives to work on during 2015. Keep it focused – any more than one or two initiatives will result in a dilution of effort.

– At client level. Each client will have its own specific set of issues including some ‘quick wins’ that can be addressed immediately.

5. MOST IMPORTANT, MONITOR PROGRESS.

If the results are poor, consider an interim assessment in 6 months (we call this a ‘Healthcheck’) but definitely repeat the feedback assessment after 12 months. If you don’t do this, you won’t know if you have achieved success.

None of the above five items are rocket science, but it strikes me as odd that some clients fail to take these actions. I know from 10 years of delivering Deep-Insight customer feedback to clients in the UK and the Netherlands, I know that these actions will result in better customer experience and improved feedback scores.
 

Does NPS Work for B2B Companies
 

Tags: b2b, CRQ, CSat, customer assessment, customer satisfaction, Net Promoter Score, NPS, survey

Susan and Bill have Relationship Problems! (Part II)

Posted on September 12, 2014 at 3:17 pm.

Written by John O'Connor

Following on from last week’s post on Susan and Bill, we explore what happens next in their story. In particular, we’ll look at the risks of being in the “Danger Zone“.
 


 

EPISODE 2: “Performing Zone” or “Danger Zone”?

Susan, Sales Director: “Those Customer Relationship Quality (CRQ) results were incredibly revealing and more than a little scary. Very few of our large accounts are Ambassadors and our biggest account is an Opponent. If we can’t find a way out of the ‘Danger Zone’ Bill and I won’t be working here in 12 months time.”

Bill, Marketing Director: “Deep-Insight have helped us figure out our Net Promoter Score (NPS®). It’s negative. Very negative. At least we know from our Deep-Insight assessment exactly WHAT the problems are, and HOW to tackle them. If we don’t, Susan will be out of a job in 12 months time.” 
 

The last time we met Bill and Susan, they were having relationship problems. Today, they have patched up their differences but they now face a more serious problem. You see, Susan and Bill’s company is in the “Danger Zone” and they need to find a route into a safer, more comfortable place. And they need to find that route quickly.

Last month, Susan and Bill conducted a Customer Relationship Quality (CRQ) assessment of their corporate customers. They invited 300 key contacts in their Top 50 accounts to tell them exactly what they thought of their relationship with the company.

The results were revealing and require immediate action. With a deeply negative Net Promoter Score and a Customer Relationship Quality (CRQ) score that pinpoints a series of issues relating to poor service and low levels of Trust and Commitment, Susan and Bill are not in a good place.

But they know what to do.
 

The Three Zones

Susan and Bill are like mountaineers on Everest. At more than 8,000m above sea level, the air is thin and oxygen scarce. Mountaineers call this the “Death Zone”. Every mountaineer knows that it’s possible to get the top of Everest, but you can’t stay there for very long or, quite simply, you will die. In fact, anything above 6,000m is dangerous and performance is severely impaired. Mountaineers know that climbing at this level carries a severe risk of permanent damage and at some point – sooner rather than later – they need to descend to safer ground.

Businesses operate in a similar fashion. If your organisation has a positive Net Promoter Score or a CRQ score of 5 or above (CRQ is on a 1-7 scale), it is operating in its “Performing Zone”. Of course, the higher the NPS and CRQ scores, the better. If your NPS is above 30% or your CRQ is above 5.5, the chances are that your customers are extremely loyal and think you are truly unique. Finding new customers is also easy, as your existing customers are a steady source of word-of-mouth referrals.

The opposite is also true. Companies that operate well outside their “Performing Zone” find it difficult to attract new customers and it becomes a constant battle to replace those customers who decide to take their business elsewhere. This is the “Danger Zone”. When a company’s Net Promoter Score falls below -30% and its CRQ score drops below 4.5, it’s in the “Danger Zone” and time to take dramatic action.


 

Customer Relationship Quality (CRQ)

At least Susan and Bill know they are in trouble, because they have conducted a NPS assessment on their key customers, which has also pointed out exactly WHAT their customer issues are, and HOW they can fix those fractured relationships with their key clients.
 

Which Zone Are You In?

Of course, your company is unlikely to be in the “Danger Zone.” Our 15 years of working with large multinational B2B companies tells us that only 10% of companies fit into this category.

But we also know that a further 25% of companies are operating in the “Non-Performing Zone”.

Which zone are you in? Would you like to know? Contact us if you want to find out.

Tune in next week for the final episode in the Bill & Susan trilogy!
 
 

* Net Promoter® and NPS® are registered trademarks and Net Promoter SystemSM and Net Promoter ScoreSM are trademarks of Bain & Company, Satmetrix Systems and Fred Reichheld

Tags: CRQ, customer relationship quality, Danger Zone, Net Promoter Score, Non-Performing Zone, NPS, Performing Zone

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