Does quality foresight and open transparency in customer sales negotiations have a positive influence on customer expectations, or is confidence in one’s own expertise and the provision of less information more crucial for success?
At ISG-Americas®, we’re reevaluating customer relationships and asking ourselves what truly defines successful business development. To put it another way: What do customers really expect from their provider in their initial approach, and is attention to detail and process foresight more likely to lead to success, or is a generalized approach more important? Or, to put it another way, should the chef reveal his recipes when presenting the menu?
We surveyed our experts within ISG-Americas®:
The real core question is this: Is the client truly interested in processes and perspectives, or is it more about the outcome, the good result, for example, the fact that we as a recruiting company are placing well and are successfully completing project delivery. After 33 years in international business, I’ve come to the conclusion that the process should be program, at least for ourselves. Our ingredients for the meal so to say.
Let’s assume that the client only cares about the outcome, so mutual success at the end of the project. There’s nothing wrong with that. Now, one could, in such a case, accuse the client of a lack of empathy. But what is it that really counts in today’s pluralistic societies? What defines customer relationship management, and what creates impact on first sight? We believe, regardless of which details the customer values, the result should be right. If we have this under our control, for instance through highlighting to our core competence, then our own outcome quality should be the deciding factor. Is the customer ready and open to understand what apparently might lead to success, or can the customer simply expect that purchasing a service means acquiring expertise that ultimately must lead to the desired result?
However, the decisive factor here is the circumstances and the sales-specific perspective. How can the customer know or verify that exactly the relationship with us will lead to success without the customer questioning or being willing to engage with our service and quality approach? A good question! Having a good program and a good plan alone doesn’t always guarantee sales success as well. So what triggers the customer’s willingness to cooperate?
If mutual trust, intuition, and authenticity have been the key to building trust since the Earth’s creation and since relationships began, then it’s safe to assume that 90% of all business and customer relationships are still based on these psychological principles today. What happens, for example, if I am technologically superior but unable to utilize the technology and system?
Technological leadership and projectual conception do not determine eventual success or failure alone. Systems theory states that everything is interrelated and that when a molecule moves, the system reacts and has to move as well. In our view, it’s important to view success in interpersonal collaboration not from a technocratic-fragmentary perspective, but rather from a holistic and human-centric perspective. Consultants who have a core competency automatically sell their skills within the context of the process in namely such a way, that they are perceived as having the necessary market-, industry-, functional-, or geographical- expertise. If you want to sell fire, you argue with me about the danger of water. If you want to sell water, you should talk about fire and how water can extinguish fire. Competence is a state of honesty that makes authenticity possible and where mutual trust can develop.
Let’s talk about the things we understand and let the structure develop as the process unfolds. Any form of collaborative conversation demonstrates this competence. I believe you because you know what you’re talking about. I buy a loaf of bread and don’t eat it in the same moment, until I get home, right? Knowing everything in advance is like setting an impossible goal. But what has always existed is professional competence. Combined with personal sympathy, this is a weapon! There will always be customers who don’t work with us. Let’s focus on those who let us do the work. Implementing something means moving from thinking to doing!
This is a publication of ISG-Americas®. All rights reserved.
For more information about ISG-Americas®, please contact:
Email: americas@isg.com
ISG Americas® Head-Office: +1 347 501 6813