personalized insightLast blog, we talked about the value of delivering insight and how it needs to be tailored to the specific client you are working with.

The best of all outcomes are achieved when you, as a serving professional, actually co-create insight that applies to a specific person within the client. It applies to that person and what they are working to achieve. It applies to that specific person and where they are in the client decision-making process and the progression of that process. This personalization is the most powerful connection that you will make at a client.

Think about the person you work with in a client-company. This person has specific needs and objectives that are unique to them. You have the opportunity to help them in ways that go beyond the overall business aims of their company. How can you help them do their job better? What constraints are pushing on them personally? What obstacles can you help remove? Can you help them meet deadlines? What information can you provide that impacts this person, not just this company?

This connection came to a clear understanding when calling on “Jim”, an engineer at a medical device client that we had been serving for years. Jim was a young father of 3 with his oldest son just turning 10. In this case, Jim was involved in the software creation of a new medical device that was due to market in the next few months. He had used our products and software tools to develop their end-products on many occasions. This time out the pressure to get the product to market was particularly high.

Added to the work pressure was the fact that Jim had just volunteered to coach his son’s soccer team. And that was a BIG community involvement in this case. We listened carefully to the conflicting needs for him to push to work overtime AND at the same time to coach his son’s soccer team. Our team had multiple solutions. We arranged for an outside consultant to assist in the project. We also coordinated our own technical experts locally and from the factory across the continent to help create the framework for the software and provided key sections of pre-written software code to address some of the special functions needed. We assisted further by helping with the quality assurance and compliance testing needed to get this medical device to market perfectly. On the personal side we were able to reach out internationally and connect Jim with a youth coaching expert that one of our European team members knew well.

In this case we delivered highly personalized insight and solutions that helped our client meet his corporate mandate and see through his personal commitment to his son. That’s how you work with your client to truly make a difference.

Insight is good. Personalized insight is invaluable.

boaring presentation with sleeping attendees

Please. Stop giving presentations.

Now, let me expand and explain. One of the very worst tools to ever be used by a sales person is PowerPoint. Not that it is bad on its own, just that we all use it as a crutch. We have all misused the true power of the tool because it is what we have seen everyone else do:  stand in front of a client and roll through 30+ slides that tell them about what we do.  Boring, and not in the least effective.  And yet we still continue to do it. We have all said the phrase “please stop me and ask questions” during one of our mind-numbing presentations.  And the clients almost never do.  It is just the way it is… or WAS.

My challenge for you for the next 2 weeks: give NO presentations.

Instead, have good two-way conversations.

Keep PowerPoint in hiding and the laptops closed.  Go old world, take out a piece of paper and take a FEW notes.  Prepare for and hold very interactive conversations with your clients.  Have conversations with your clients that matter to them.  Conversations that matter are 75% listening and 25% asking questions. Good questions contain the information that you want to communicate. For example: “Bill (client) I understand that one of your suppliers has just announced another round of EOL (End of Life) devices. Will that be impacting you this time?”  You are delivering a message AND asking a question. Conversations like this take planning on your part and a deep understanding of the client.

Here is another way you can do the same thing (this data is actual survey data from our clients). You are talking to an engineering manager in your client. It may be a first conversation or just another in the long line of visits.  “Bill, at Microchip we have over 100,000 clients world wide. In a study that we have just completed with our global client base we uncovered some surprising data. More than 30% of our clients are spending more than 30% of their engineering resources on fixing problems like EOL that semiconductor suppliers have caused.  And the average redesign cost was in excess of $150,000.  That’s a staggering amount of money and time wasted.  At Microchip we don’t cause that, and I’m wondering what your experience is in this situation.”

Now, let’s set the stage further: You are having this conversation, and as you start, you stand up and approach a white board, or you open your notepad to a blank piece of paper, and you write EOL in big letters on the top. You start the conversation above and make 3 notes:

Then you write MCHP and put a big ZERO beside it as you close the comment. Then you hand them the marker or the pen and ask them what their experience is.

Now this is just one conversation that you can pretty well use universally. This is a good example to show the planning that must go into having a good two-way conversation.  Your Plan/Do/Review commitment is absolute if you wish to have conversations with clients that matter to them and to you.

So, step away from the Powerpoint.  Step away now. Plan your next call, prep the conversation, simulate the conversation with a friend, and take the time to really care about your client and what their focus is.  Even if a client expects a “corporate overview” from you, do it without Powerpoint.  

Make it a conversation, not a presentation. Make it different and you will stand out from the crowd.  You know the material you need to cover. All you need to know is what matters to them. All you have to do is ASK. You will be surprised what the ensuing conversation will become.

Again, the challenge: NO presentations for 2 weeks.

It’s shifting mindset AND methodology! Let me know what happens.

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