Along the way we adopt practices that were considered the best. We do it
in our personal lives—diets, exercise trends, and fashion. And we do it
in our businesses—outsourcing, automated phone systems (”Please listen
carefully, as our menu options have changed.”), and marketing trends.
Sometimes there comes a point, though, when those best practices are no longer the best. They’re tired and ineffective. They might even have become the worst, but we don’t know it. After all, they were the best when you implemented them, shouldn’t they still be good? Not necessarily.
One such thing is the use of customer satisfaction surveys. Yes, we want to know if our buyers were happy with the service we provided, but as Charles H. Green points out “the digital age has taken a good idea and flogged it to death.”
Customers are hit from all sides by requests for feedback. Call customer service for your insurance company, and the recording asks if you’ll stay on the line after talking with a representative to take a survey. Visit a website, and a pop-up appears asking you how your experience was. Bring your car in to be serviced, and you get repeated phone calls to take their satisfaction survey. Ignore those calls long enough, and they will send you an email.
These days customers regularly ignore such requests, says Green in his article How to Annoy Your Client without Really Trying.
“It’s time to speak the truth: customer satisfaction metrics are not an unmitigated benefit. We are well past the crossover point. In fact, customer satisfaction measurement efforts have, ironically, become a detriment to customer satisfaction,” he says.
Before you make a request or send a satisfaction survey, consider whether there is a more personal way to connect with the buyer and learn about their experience.
“The “hours for dollars” approach to delivering knowledge work, however, simply goes against the grain of delivering value. Professional services firms often promote rainmakers who bill the most hours, but clients get the short end of the deal in this scenario. They are afraid to pick up the phone because the meter starts running in 1/10 hour increments,” she writes.
Instead, Nirell says firms should follow what law firm Clearspire is doing—bill based on the value delivered. Using this client-centric model, firms provide fixed project fees, eliminate fee padding, provide project plans so clients know what they’re getting and when a project will be completed, and collaborate with others in the firm, not compete with them.
“In today’s business world, value is a byproduct of several factors: the perception of your brand, your ability to communicate your brand clearly and ethically, and how consistently your brand and delivery mechanisms align to ultimately create a positive client experience,” Nirell says. “Creating value is one part art and one part science. It takes a blend of great listening skills, the ability to think on your feet, and the courage to be provocative.”
For a lot of services, there isn’t always a clear budget, he says. And that’s one reason why the FAINT (Funds, Authority, Interest, Need, and Timeframe) method for qualifying prospects is better. A prospect may not have budgeted for consulting services, but they can—and will—find the money to pay for it if you can show them the value of it. That means you just need to know if they have the funds.
BANT also doesn’t consider the interest of the buyer, says Doerr. When you’re prospecting, and the person has the funds and authority, you want to create interest—interest in what you do, interest in something they may not have seen, he says. You want to get them excited about a new idea they never considered.
“In prospecting BANT isn’t effective enough because it skips those people who have a latent need, and it also doesn’t work very well when I have a demand-driving service where I have to create the demand by creating that excitement, by creating that interest,” he says. “BANT is much too limiting for the complex service sale.”
Sometimes it’s because they’ve prepared themselves on the outside but not on the inside, writes Larry Gard in his article How to Take the Work Out of Networking.
“They rehearsed their elevator speech so that they would sound natural. They put business cards in their pocket and made sure their shoes were shined. They may have even thought about topics for conversation,” he says. “All of that is fine, but it has very little to do with getting to know others and trying to help them. There is a disconnect between what they’ve prepared for versus what they’re trying to accomplish. No wonder they’re uncomfortable.”
If you are among those people, Larry Gard says you need to change how you prepare for networking situations. Some of his suggestions include:
by
http://www.raintodayblog.com/when-best-practices-are-no-longer-the-best/#more-7320
Sometimes there comes a point, though, when those best practices are no longer the best. They’re tired and ineffective. They might even have become the worst, but we don’t know it. After all, they were the best when you implemented them, shouldn’t they still be good? Not necessarily.
One such thing is the use of customer satisfaction surveys. Yes, we want to know if our buyers were happy with the service we provided, but as Charles H. Green points out “the digital age has taken a good idea and flogged it to death.”
Customers are hit from all sides by requests for feedback. Call customer service for your insurance company, and the recording asks if you’ll stay on the line after talking with a representative to take a survey. Visit a website, and a pop-up appears asking you how your experience was. Bring your car in to be serviced, and you get repeated phone calls to take their satisfaction survey. Ignore those calls long enough, and they will send you an email.
These days customers regularly ignore such requests, says Green in his article How to Annoy Your Client without Really Trying.
“It’s time to speak the truth: customer satisfaction metrics are not an unmitigated benefit. We are well past the crossover point. In fact, customer satisfaction measurement efforts have, ironically, become a detriment to customer satisfaction,” he says.
Before you make a request or send a satisfaction survey, consider whether there is a more personal way to connect with the buyer and learn about their experience.
Is It Time to Revise Billing Practices?
For what seems like forever, firms have charged clients using the “billable hours” model in which clients are billed for any interactions with providers. This practice, however, has run its course, writes Lisa Nirell in her article Re-Imagining What a Law Firm Could Be: Scrapping Billable Hours for a Client-Centric Model.“The “hours for dollars” approach to delivering knowledge work, however, simply goes against the grain of delivering value. Professional services firms often promote rainmakers who bill the most hours, but clients get the short end of the deal in this scenario. They are afraid to pick up the phone because the meter starts running in 1/10 hour increments,” she writes.
Instead, Nirell says firms should follow what law firm Clearspire is doing—bill based on the value delivered. Using this client-centric model, firms provide fixed project fees, eliminate fee padding, provide project plans so clients know what they’re getting and when a project will be completed, and collaborate with others in the firm, not compete with them.
“In today’s business world, value is a byproduct of several factors: the perception of your brand, your ability to communicate your brand clearly and ethically, and how consistently your brand and delivery mechanisms align to ultimately create a positive client experience,” Nirell says. “Creating value is one part art and one part science. It takes a blend of great listening skills, the ability to think on your feet, and the courage to be provocative.”
Reevaluate How You Qualify Prospects
Another practice that service professionals and salespeople have been using for years is using BANT (Budget, Authority, Need, and Timeframe) to qualify buyers. While that method works well for a transactional sale or for a sale in which there is a clear need, it doesn’t go far enough when selling services, says John Doerr in his podcast interview The Best Way to Qualify Prospects When Selling Services.For a lot of services, there isn’t always a clear budget, he says. And that’s one reason why the FAINT (Funds, Authority, Interest, Need, and Timeframe) method for qualifying prospects is better. A prospect may not have budgeted for consulting services, but they can—and will—find the money to pay for it if you can show them the value of it. That means you just need to know if they have the funds.
BANT also doesn’t consider the interest of the buyer, says Doerr. When you’re prospecting, and the person has the funds and authority, you want to create interest—interest in what you do, interest in something they may not have seen, he says. You want to get them excited about a new idea they never considered.
“In prospecting BANT isn’t effective enough because it skips those people who have a latent need, and it also doesn’t work very well when I have a demand-driving service where I have to create the demand by creating that excitement, by creating that interest,” he says. “BANT is much too limiting for the complex service sale.”
Change Your Approach to Networking
You might know all the best practices for networking to develop new business, but if you feel uncomfortable implementing them—or simply don’t like networking—that knowledge means nothing. Psychological barriers can prevent people from practicing what they prepared for in networking situations.Sometimes it’s because they’ve prepared themselves on the outside but not on the inside, writes Larry Gard in his article How to Take the Work Out of Networking.
“They rehearsed their elevator speech so that they would sound natural. They put business cards in their pocket and made sure their shoes were shined. They may have even thought about topics for conversation,” he says. “All of that is fine, but it has very little to do with getting to know others and trying to help them. There is a disconnect between what they’ve prepared for versus what they’re trying to accomplish. No wonder they’re uncomfortable.”
If you are among those people, Larry Gard says you need to change how you prepare for networking situations. Some of his suggestions include:
- Remind yourself that your goal is not simply to collect business cards and that it is unlikely you will meet someone who is a perfect match for your service. Your primary goal is to get to know people and to determine how you might help them.
- Give some thought to how you can get to know the people you’ll be meeting. Don’t want to get stuck in the same old tired dialogue? Then don’t ask the same old questions.
by
http://www.raintodayblog.com/when-best-practices-are-no-longer-the-best/#more-7320
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