I was discussing with a colleague recently on the challenges of leadership and why the leader must not use leverage to ensure compliance in a bid to force progress (or results desired). Please note that the transformative impact of leadership will only become a reality if the leader dutifully fosters collaboration, teamwork and cooperation. Leverage erodes trust which is pivotal to a unified workforce.
There is a new branch of sales and marketing practice known as Holistic Marketing. Holistic Marketing views business as a unified entity where every part collaborates towards achieving a common goal. This strategy seeks to integrate organisational components. It says that synergy between functions is more impactful than individual contributions. There must be interconnectedness, it added, between functions in order to achieve seamless customer experience and exemplary brand image. This strategy therefore, defines business as a dynamic system that aligns activities, resources and goals. It emphasises that when every function plays its vital roles, shared objectives of customer satisfaction and overall effectiveness will be achieved.
The Scale Agile Framework (SAFe) even digs deeper into this. This framework “enjoins” leaders to combine the leadership qualities of focus, integrity, honesty confidence, inspiration, passion, innovation, patience, responsiveness, (among others), with the principle and practice of “collective responsibility.” This framework says we can drive regular agile changes and transformation if “everyone is aligned.” The leader must boost collaboration to achieve seamless flow of value streams which include timely value-adding solutions to problems and challenges. Aligned, committed, confident and competent employees, according to this framework, will deliver two great results namely; cost effectiveness in the economy of employing the workforce and optimum outcomes.
Let me make two more points before we drive through “the New Selling Dimensions.”
A school of thought has recommended that after a smart organisation must have agreed its budget for a specific period, execution or implementation should start with “connecting everyone’s work with customer needs and there must be no conflict of interests.”
Let me give some clarifications: “The purpose of every organisation is to create customers and efficiently manage them” (Peter Drucker). Organisations must focus and serve the needs of customers. We must understand customer needs and how best to serve them. Structures, activities, processes must be connected to customer needs. Every employee must add value to customers. The entire workforce must constantly create the very essential pull of customers. We must avoid processes that result in conflicts of interest with customer needs. What I am saying is that, in these challenging times, smart organisations must become “customer centric.”
Focus on customers enables organisations to, on a sustainable basis, catch-up with competition and even lead rivals. It gives “real” improvement as against the usual illusion of progress.
Now let us examine closely the new differentials in selling. Do you know that having a good product or offering excellent services is the minimum requirement in today’s marketplace? Transactional relationship (or the usual business to business relationship) is no longer sufficient to win. Organisations must do more to become “unique value-delivering partner-for-life to the customer.” As mentioned earlier, we must understand what the customers need and provide it at the right time.
There are some emotional variables of doing business that are “the sure bets.” You must win the customer’s heart as well as the sales. Your deliverables must be done in a personalised way. You must build a bond with genuine empathy. Empathy is the meta-skill that enables focus on the true human elements in order to make a difference.
Empathy skills are now essential items in the sales toolbox. We must tailor sales pitch and communication to emotions in the right way and in addition, respond, reflect, act, persuade as well as build a sense of urgency. Empathising with the customer has become an essential attribute. There are three types: Cognitive empathy is about understanding what the person may be thinking and feeling on the surface level. Emotional empathy is understanding feelings at a deeper emotional level and the third type is compassionate empathy. Business is human and we do business with people. Ask yourselves what do customers expect? The answer is not only digital experience but more human kindness, more human empathy and more business empathy.
The requirements for “emotional relationship” include: more rational thinking, empathetic human touch and lifetime value-adding engagement.
As a result of these requirements, adaptation is today a regular process in value-delivery. Organisations must find solutions to the customers’ needs and challenges. Great intentions are not enough. Execution must be bespoke or custom-made. There must be no perception gap between what the organisation is saying and feelings of customers.
One of the make-ups of emotional relationship is the diligent identification of the “little” details that frustrate the customer. Strategists call these “frictions.” Organisations must always identify and solve these problems. We must find desirable solutions otherwise, we will still be operating within the ambit of transactional relationship.
Every touch-point with customers by employees (no matter your position or function) must leave an indelible positive and beneficial mark. We must always remind ourselves that there is a human being behind every customer. That human being has anxieties, hopes, fears, dreams and ambitions. The more we work with all these, the more beneficial the value we deliver to the customer. Do not just optimise customer journeys, be a life-long and genuine partner that delivers benefits.
Let me conclude by emphasising the fact that for organisations to move forward in leaps as opposed to steps, we need creative innovation on relationship with customers. Marketplace trend analysis supports an essentially hand-up change in our dealings with customers. To guarantee sustainable growth, organisations must strategically work with human traits in order to build understanding, rapport and trust. As I mentioned earlier, agile principles and practices make it incumbent on smart organisations to scale-up sales of products and services with the combination of emotional and transactional relationships.
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