egyii blog

Whether you are a working for a large consulting company or an IT/Telecoms vendor, chances are you may be wasting one of your best resources to win business- the resources that are the least “threatening” with the most potential to influence; your professional services, consulting or sales engineering team.

Buyers buy from a non-rational (emotional) approach. Most companies (salespeople, consultants, engineers and services) approach it from a rational approach- that is positioning on a technical and/or a needs base basis. There is nothing wrong with this, however it needs to be recognized, because if it only goes to a technical or needs base basis, then chances are opportunities are missed and wasted.

As you build your relationship and the client relationship progresses, it moves from the  technical or needs base basis and  reaches its peak at the next level, the relationship level. Again, there is nothing wrong with this, but rarely does it reach the trusted advisor status, the highest status of all relationships.

Reaching a trusted advisor status opens up more opportunities by easing the lines of business and the relationship highways that need to be built for current and ongoing business.

It is also a BIG differentiator in today’s competitive services world, that everyone wants a part of.

What keeps most companies from meeting the trusted advisor status?

The sales organization’s “processes.”

The pressure of sales organizations tends to drive salespeople to be very “seller” centric, which then tends to drive the buyer away. This gives the professional services team the opportunity to be more customer or buyer centric (focusing on the buyer’s personal needs), as they don’t have the pressure to sell and close.

Most sales organizations treat their clients as “competitors,” often holding information back and not collaborating. They are often afraid to open up and share too much. Buyers value openness and openness build trust. Professional services team don’t typically feel the “heat” of the corporate led competition attitude – this gives them the opportunity be transparent and to collaborate.

Most sales people are not good listeners (and it’s not always their fault). They are focusing too much on the sales process, the outcome of the meeting, the “advance” and their own “seller focused” agenda. Professional services teams have a better opportunity to listen (once they get over their rational, technical product approach) and the power of listening builds relationships.

Most salespeople are short term focused- whatever it takes to close the deal to meet monthly or quarterly objectives. Buyers sense this and know it- and don’t necessarily like it. Professional services teams can capitalise by looking medium to long term- to build the relationship, to keep the client long term.

(I am not blaming the sales people for their faults- it is typically the system that drives their behaviours. The system, or sales process is typically a “one size fits all” process. A process is OK, it just needs to be flexible)

All of these models build trust. And trust transforms relationships, which transforms business.

The Personal and Risk Aspect

Trust and relationships are personal. Professional services teams appear to be less threatening in the eyes of the client, and therefore have great potential to become more personal, to build trust and relationships, and therefore influence, without changing the professional services teams status quo and making them feel “uncomfortable.” After all most professional services people are not salespeople and many don’t want to be.

The risk in buying professional services is also very high. Why?

The product is partially intangible and partially comprised of people knowledge and skills

The overall stakes are high

The range of outcomes can be wide and unclear

The seller typically has command of technical expertise that the buyer does not (which makes it somewhat threatening to the client)

There is financial and business risk–but there is great emotional and political risk as well. In a trusting relationship, risk is mitigated because the “transactions” become personal.

Is it time to look at your business, transform it and fill your pipeline by releasing your hidden weapon of influence- your professional services team? Give it a think. A big think.

Trip Allen, Team Egyii, Singapore

Things are heating up!

Egyii is featured in an article titled “SMEs Send Out the SOS: Seven SME Owners Tell Their Stories from the Recession Frontline ” from the Singapore Business Review,  July 2009.

“Stay focused, stay flexible and stay on board.”

For the complete article, click here.

Trip Allen, Team Egyii, Singapore

We lead a split life. On the one hand, we do what we have to do to earn a living; on the other, we do what we want to do to have fun. But high achievers don’t experience this dichotomy: they love what they do and they do what they love. In his classic study of Americans’ perception of their work Working: People Talk About What They Do All Day and How They Feel About What They Do (New York: Pantheon Books 1974) Studs Terkel quotes Nora Watson as saying: “I think most of us are looking for a calling, not a job… Most of us have jobs that are too small for our spirit. Jobs are not big enough for people.”

You can call it a grand quest or a mission – those who discover it find the same feelings as Stephen Spielberg: “I wake up so excited, I can’t eat breakfast. I’ve never run out of energy.”

But how do we discover this passion? All I can do is tell you how I, James Irvine, discovered it and hope that you will tap into what I say and somehow relate it to yourself. I was a banker for 10 years and was unhappy. I certainly had no passion for my work. I went through each day as if a machine was doing the work while my real self was somewhere else waiting to come out. After 10 years of enormous stress resulting not from the pressure of the job but the fact that I was doing something all day long that was against my nature, I quit.

I attended a career counselling program, and did the usual analyses with my logical mind about what interests I had had when I was a child, what I enjoyed doing in my spare time, and so on. These were helpful in a limited way, because they were all thinking processes, whereas what I really needed to do was find some quiet time to listen to my heart. What I realised was that nothing from my past was really a clue to my future.

So I spent some time working in a retail shop while I struggled with this issue. And as the days went by and I started listening to my feelings and the spontaneous thoughts that occasionally emerged, I began to feel a bit like teaching people. It wasn’t a sudden decision like ‘I want to be a teacher’. Rather, I just began to see myself talking to people and sharing some of my own feelings and thoughts, and as I saw this I felt good.

I didn’t make some grand decision to become a teacher. I decided to enrol in a certificate course in Teaching English as a Foreign Language. I knew I liked languages and grammar, so I thought this was a way to try out my gut instincts without too much commitment. Remember, I had never so much as made a presentation or stood in front of an audience in my whole time in banking or at any other time in my life. I just had this feeling that was good when I pictured myself doing this.

After two weeks of theory and instruction, we had to deliver our first lesson in front of a live audience who came from the local town for free lessons from these student teachers of English. This first lesson would last for 15 minutes, and I had no idea how I would have enough to say and do to last for 15 minutes. I spent hours preparing, but on the day I stood up in front of about 20 adult students and within a couple of minutes felt very comfortable and energised. I actually discovered a new person inside of myself during those 15 minutes. I really enjoyed the experience in a way that I had not when I was analysing balance sheets and drawing up financial proposals. I had found my passion.

Because I enjoyed the experience of teaching so much, I became good at it, and now, as a corporate talent developer with Egyii in Singapore, I wake up every morning feeling the same as Stephen Spielberg. Well, maybe not quite so excited – I still have time for breakfast!