Years back, during the tea break in a program that I attended, a lady who works in a major pension management company greeted me and a conversation ensued between us.
The first thing I asked her was: “What makes your company different from other pension funds managers?” The answer she gave me brought chills to my bone marrow, and I did not know when I said to her; please don’t let your CEO hear about your response.
She said to me, “well we basically do the same thing other pension funds managers do – you know there is no much difference in what everyone is doing”. By what she answered, she has just taken a business opportunity away from her company all the way to the competitors. She has just thrown away a business opportunity her company would have won.Sadly, many people are doing similar thing all to the detriment of their organizations. The reality is – no decision maker would be eager and excited to commit their hard-earned funds to any pension funds manager or to any other company that their representatives would not do a good job of presenting how their company is pretty much different from others.
Now, one of the concerns of every CEO or leader should be, how many of my middle officers can answer with all clarity and sense of conviction the following questions below?
- What do you think makes our company different?
- Why do you think people should do business with us or buy from us?
- Tell me the strategy and the direction of your company – if you actually want us to do the business with your company.
Not surprisingly, the senior people might not find it difficult providing the right answers, but how about the thousands of other employees who are out there struggling to stay in front of customers, how about the majority of the workforce who don’t have leadership position or acumen, how about the majority of your workforce who don’t attend retreat and are not aware of the company’s big picture and direction, how about the people who actually don’t know why customers should buy from your company?
In this era of competitiveness, what makes organizations to thrive the most is knowledge and not just knowledge, knowledge shared (which is why I have over the years written against Silo Mentality in organizations). Most times, managers ignore a lot of thing and take them for granted. For example, it is less “result driving” to ask someone who is typically struggling with the numbers, why he or she didn’t meet the target again. Definitely, someone who was questioned by a director of a company to share what their company is doing differently and he or she was unable to communicate (just because of the knowledge gap) will lose the business to others. The best thing for a manager to do when someone is not doing well, is to ask the person, “Is there anything I can do to help you improve? Then ask probing questions to unearth what their challenges are and how you can help and you will see their performances improving.
For organizations to succeed, the knowledge gaps should be collapsed. If as a CEO, executive or a very senior person, you know so much about the business and the company and your people don’t know that much, one may not expect so much from them. Remember, no one can do more until he or she knows more. I think this is the right time for CEOs and executives to share their knowledge and experience across to their people. Few years back, I asked a CEO of a bank, how much have you done in showing your people personally how they can communicate with outside CEOs and decision makers that will actually give them the businesses they are looking for? He saw the need to be doing that from time to time. When a CEO or an executive shares his personal experiences and how to deal with outside CEOs, how to communicate rightly to decision makers and how to win businesses, the people will listen and will try to put it into practice.
Let’s I forget, my lady friend asked me what would she have replied me? I simply told her, answer in a compelling manner such that the person would be eager to know more about your company and to do business with you.
I am a big believer of sales (with or without sales team or department) being every body’s job. This is simply because, everyone can bring one business or the other, but before you expect them to bring businesses; they would have to understand the business and what the company can deliver or do differently, and what makes the company different from others, and why people should buy from your company.
When this knowledge gap collapses, your people will begin to have clarity of the business, know why your company is different from others, understand why customers should buy from you, and understand the direction of the company and the strategic choices they are making – and with these knowledge and understanding, your people will be well positioned to grab opportunities that will come their way.
Over the years, our “Driving Sales in Difficult Times Program” has helped organizations to systemically conquer their most unsurmountable sales challenges and same can happen to your organization too.
As always, I welcome your comments, questions or requests.
The trusted advisor,
‘Uju Onwuzulike,
