NEW YEAR, New Idea

A mantra that I’ve repeated in several blogs now: We can’t work in 2022 like we did in 2019. So, as always, applying the “practice what we preach” rule, we are launching a new product.

One of our clients has a manager in a medium sized European country, who contacted us last August asking if we had a solution to a problem. He has a small to medium sized operation which suffers from Sales, Front Office and Field Service co-operation issues. He wants to challenge that, because in his view is, (in line with our own) we MUST have optimal cooperation and understanding of each area’s roles.

We proposed creating a hybrid Sales and Service Program. We blended content from our Sales programs and our Service programs. We asked the client to arrange a fun factor, which became a team building event for the Saturday night. This 2-day program was held over a weekend, with the participants (all members of the sales, service and front office teams) coming in on a Friday night.

We executed the 2-day session at the beginning of November 2021. I knew it would be good, but I was blown away by just how valuable and effective it was. The interest from the Service and Front office teams (never to be referred to as the “Back Office”) in subjects normally targeted at the sales teams was tremendous. These included:

a) What keeps the customer awake at night? – I.e., key business issues.

b) How Sales reps have to manage the price gap between our product and the lower cost competition.

c) Sales language and the Elevator pitch and how to grab the attention of a very busy client.

d) The Sales Brand Values of their business to their customers, as a supplier.

e) The rules of Service

f) Service language

g) Giving bad news to customers

Similarly, the interest from the Sales team on the challenges of the Service and Front Office roles was also extraordinary.

We tried another idea too. In the separate service and sales sessions, we normally do a review of what constitutes GREAT service or a GREAT Salesperson. This time we got the service teams to come up with the 21 skills of a GREAT salesperson and, the Sales team, to come up with the 21 skills of a GREAT Service person. There were some marvellous insights from both sides.

The program was so successful that we are now launching this new Hybrid Sales and Service Program model for clients who want to challenge and develop their Sales, Service, and Front Office cooperation.

And now, what is your new idea for 2022? Regardless of what it is, after what we all faced in 2021, we wouldn’t be upset if 2022 was a boring, uneventful - a simply normal year.

In any event, we will be holding on tight.

Tony Kenney