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Are you well deployed as the “CCO”?

This job - that of being in touch with your clients in a consistent, collaborative way - is probably more critical to your company’s performance in this economic environment than it ever has.

Why?

Clients need more care and feeding. They want to know your business has some stability.  They want optimism, everywhere they can find it. The businesses that engage in detail and positive possibility will win through the tough times and excel in the good times..

On the other hand, let’s also not be naive.  There are some tough situations and problems to be solved.  You’re going to have to get your best “solutions hat” on and come ready to hear things you may not want to hear.

When?

Our primary research tells us that clients want to see the Chief “Calling” Officer in five typical situations:

1. Commitment to the client’s business and the business relationship with them

2. Damage Control: has there been a problem in fulfillment?

3. The Red Carpet: celebration and recognition

4. Senior-to-Senior: there is an appropriate ongoing relationship between peers

5. Supporting the client-facing professional: nothing makes the producer look powerful and help expand her contact patterns in the client business like the CCO coming and demonstrating they are on the agenda

How?

There are many great CCO’s who are awesome in the trenches.  Too often their process is too informal, too casual, too sporadic to be a powerful catalyst for continuous excellence. They need to distill that natural talent into something consistent that clients can count on and the sales professionals can emulate.

Starting points:

• Ask the sales professionals to think through the big 5 above and identify targets.
• Identify the timing for telephone calls and face-to-face
• Ask to be briefed using Know Your Client Warm and the Agenda for the last contact with the client
• Ask to be prepared with the objectives and draft agenda for the call you are to make as CCO
• Help measure the impact

What will you reap by sowing these seeds?

An increased clarity of the expectations and culture. Increased client commitment. More power in the hands of the sales professionals and relationship managers. More deal flow and profitablity.

That’s a crop worth tending…