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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…

I sat with an executive in the telecommunications space a few weeks ago.  I realized afterwards that I have had similar conversations with executives in various verticals: in software, technology, marketing, financial services, law firms and in professional services firms.

The conversations go something like this:

• “Stop Selling & Do Something Valuable is very practical, it’s much more than the typical book that is all technique or all concept”
• “I really value a structured simple and powerful process for our professionals that really creates business dialogue”
• “So many approaches tell people what to do, not how to do it”
• “It’s organic - people can adapt it to their own style and that of their client”
• “I can’t remember the last time I read a business book cover to cover.  Usually all the value is in the first third and then it’s just repetitive”
• “This is a brilliant approach for the professional, the practitioner at the client facing level”
• “What’s next?”

Good question…what is next?  How do we help our clients move forward after “this” and build on the momentum?

So first, thanks for letting me share some of the great feedback I’ve been getting.  People encouraged me to write a book for a long time before I was ready.  That’s why I chose to focus so narrowly but so practically.

Make a real difference!  Engage the front line professionals serving clients.  Help them be their best.  Move along the business on its strengths.  I struggled with these challenges as a leader of professional.  It’s really rewarding to see individuals and businesses making a difference with the tools and approaches.  Let’s not talk conceptually about strategy and culture - let’s make it real!

Secondly, and most importantly, I want to start addressing the”What’s next?”

“What’s next” for me is helping leaders build a value-added platform with the SS&DSV philosophy and tools.  It can help services businesses enhance a strategy that is based on needs-driven, value-added relationships and helps drive revenue “now”.  Strategy, culture, metrics, ownership and alignment by executives and practitioners.  Here on this blog I’ll begin the conversation about implementing SS&DSV as an organizational and strategic vehicle.

SS&DSV delivers tools that are recognized as the beginning of a process:

• Applying the agenda builder focused on building shared commitment with the client or partner
• Targeted recap statements and targeted questions build the “Know Your Client Warm”conversation
• Both start to happen before the meeting
• The agenda confirmation call brings the client to the table and surfaces other issues and needs
• The meeting is less “event” and more a “stage in a process”
• Sets up powerful, insight rich follow up and follow through

Now the producing professional can measure impact.  New insight.  Increased pace of sale.  Increased awareness of other needs.  Increased commitment to solution finding.  Less competition.  Less focus on price.

Delivering value in tough markets!  Enduring approaches beyond!

Executives:build a platform of disciplined repeatable client excellence.  The sales will follow.  Profitability pressures will ease.

Expect that shared standards provide a foundation for innovation and excellence.  Stretch the folks who want to know you are not imposing a narrow ceiling of compliance on them.

Look for future posts tagged The Executive’s Guide as I explore ways to do this in your company.