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Let’s rewind to 1995. It was 5 years after Barners Lee wrote the first HTML code bringing the World Wide Web to life. You had to dial up to access the net. Data was stored in tapes and floppy drives. Pagers were popular for staying connected while on the move. Clunky cellular phones were slowly making inroads. Looking back, those days seem primitive!
Yet, writing in the same year, for the July/August 1995 issue of Harvard Business Review, Regis McKenna advanced the idea of Real Time Marketing predicting the dramatic effect technology will have on how to win and keep Customers. Here’s a listing of the insights which are valid even today:
McKenna sums up the ‘90s challenge like this: “One thing is certain: Marketing will change, and managers must be prepared to change with it” Read Regis McKenna’s prescient ideas here.
In today’s connected world, any buyer with a minimum of computer literacy gets online to check options, reaches out to friends, colleagues and acquaintances over social media to validate choices. What does this mean to the Seller?
Wharton Professors Nicolaj Siggelekow and Christian Terwiesch, recommend a shining, new approach to address Customer needs, in their HBR 2019 article titled The Continuous Connection,.
They say episodically interacting with Customers only when they come to the company, in a ‘Buy What We Have’ approach is passe. Today, companies needn’t wait for Customers to come to them. With ‘connected strategies’, firms can build deeper ties with Customers and create wow! moments. This powerful insight can be used as a value creator by Sales Teams as well.
Which Connected Strategies Should You Use?
CONNECTED STRATEGY |
DESCRIPTION |
KEY CAPABILITY |
WORKS BEST WHEN |
WORKS BEST FOR |
Respond to desire |
Customer expresses what she wants and when |
Fast and efficient response to orders |
Customers are knowledgeable |
Customers who don’t want to share too much data and who like to be in control |
Curated offering |
Firm offers tailored menu of options to customer |
Making good personalized recommendations |
The uncurated set of options is large and potentially overwhelming |
Customers who don’t mind sharing some data but want a final say |
Coach behavior |
Firm nudges customer to act to obtain a goal |
Understanding customer needs, and ability to gather and interpret rich data |
Inertia and biases keep customers from achieving what’s best for them |
Customers who don’t mind sharing personal data and getting suggestions |
Automatic execution |
Firm fills customer’s need without being asked |
Monitoring customers and translating incoming data into action |
Customer behavior is very predictable, and costs of mistakes are small |
Customers who don’t mind sharing personal data and having firms make decisions for them |
To illustrate, let’s consider a Consulting Company, with Consultants travelling abroad frequently, approaching its bank for forex:
Used repeatedly, these strategies can help sales teams to realize 2 important benefits – (1) Get better at matching individual Customer needs with product and service options. (2) Promote learning at ‘population level’ enabling smart adjustments to the product and service portfolios.
The overarching requirement for these strategies to succeed is mutual trust between the Salesperson and Customer.
A final important point: Given that Customers are likely to have different preferences, most sales teams will have to create a portfolio of connected strategies, which will require them to build a whole new set of capabilities.
How can continuous connections work for you? A fresh look at your Customer’s purchase journey might throw up exciting answers.
How do you pick a new restaurant to try? Go online, of course. Once online, don’t you look at comments? Specially the 5-star and 1-star reviews? Or you decide to experiment because your favourite columnist gave the place a good rating. Or because a close friend raved about the lingering aroma of the pulav there, stirring an appetite a week after the meal
Consider another example. Suppose a colleague shares with you her pleasant admission-to-discharge-to-bill settlement experience, in a hospital where she underwent a surgery. Later, if a friend asks you about good hospital options, aren’t you more likely to suggest this one?
What’s common in these choices? Clue: It’s 3 words.. and is the secret Customer acquisition weapon of many thriving businesses
Word of Mouth (WOM). All Business Leaders acknowledge WOM as an amazingly effective way to acquire new Customers. It is no secret that Customer facing staff, especially sales teams, by delivering aha experiences at important touchpoints, have countless opportunities to spark positive conversations about your brand. The mystery however is in HOW this can be done.
Talk Triggers solves this puzzle. And what is a Talk Trigger? Jay Baer and Daniel Lemin define it as a “built-in differentiator that creates Customer conversations”. Hold on, isn’t that the same as a USP? The authors disagree with a humour and flair that runs through their book: “A USP is a feature, articulated with a bullet point, discussed in a conference room. A talk trigger is a benefit, articulated with a story, discussed at a cocktail party”
Does this work for B2B? Yes, say the authors, citing a study done by Blanc & Otus and G2Crowd that found the impact of recommendations and referrals in B2B to be actually far greater. The authors suggest a 4 – 5 – 6 framework to make Talk Triggers work in business. It’s important to keep the following insights in mind before getting into implementation:
Here is the 3 part 4-5-6 framework in summary:
P1: 4 Requirements of a Talk Trigger: A Talk Trigger must be (a) Remarkable (b) Relevant (c) Reasonable (d) Repeatable
P2: 5 Types of Talk Triggers: A Talk Trigger must have talkable: (a) Empathy (b) Usefulness (c) Generosity (d) Speed (e) Attitude
P3: 6 Steps to Create Talk Triggers: (a) Gather Internal Insights (b) Get Close To Your Customers (c) Create candidate Talk Triggers (d) Test & Measure (e) Expand and turn on (f) Amplify your Talk Triggers.. Create your own Next Talk Trigger.
The book illustrates the framework drawing on 30 real life cases, where businesses have successfully used Talk Triggers to get extraordinary results and leave their competition way behind. One of the 30, is Americollect.
The Americollect story and Talk Trigger lessons for Sales
Americollect is in the business of collecting receivables from Consumers who have unpaid health care bills, in the United States. What do you think is their Talk Trigger? Would you believe, it is ‘Ridiculously Nice Collections’? Collections? Ridiculously nice? You must be joking. But the truth is, in a business known for strong arm methods, collecting money by being nice cannot help becoming a talk trigger. The company leveraging empathy, has a shockingly pleasant sales script that encourages its staff to let the Customer know “we recognize your struggle now, but if you had the money, you’d pay the bill”. The “Ridiculously Nice Collections” tagline is even trademarked.
Vastly improved collections, happier hospitals, growing referrals have put Americollect in the league of the largest and fastest-growing collection agencies in US. One hospital even admitted to using the Americollect approach to training its own employees
So, as a Sales Person, what are your Talk Triggers? If you don’t have any, it’s time to discover and hone some. In a connected world, a talk trigger can be your biggest growth asset outside the balance sheet.
"Markita sold 3,526 boxes of Girl Scout cookies that year and won her trip around the world. Since then, she has sold more than 42,000 boxes of Girl Scout cookies, spoken at sales conventions across the country, starred in a Disney movie about her adventure and has coauthored the bestseller, How to Sell More Cookies, Condos, Cadillacs, Computers... And Everything Else.
Was Markita endowed with special gifts? No! She had one courageous quality though..
Markita is no smarter and no more extroverted than thousands of other people, young and old, with dreams of their own. The difference is Markita has discovered the secret of selling: Ask, Ask, Ask! Many people fail before they even begin because they fail to ask for what they want. Fear of rejection leads many of us to reject ourselves and our dreams long before anyone else ever has the chance — no matter what we’re selling.
And everyone is selling something. “You’re selling yourself every day — in school, to your boss, to new people you meet,” said Markita at 14. “My mother is a waitress: she sells the daily special. Mayors and presidents trying to get votes are selling. One of my favorite teachers was Mrs. Chapin. She made geography interesting, and that’s really selling. I see selling everywhere I look. Selling is part of the whole world.”
It takes courage to ask for what you want. Courage is not the absence of fear. It’s doing what it takes despite one’s fear. And, as Markita has discovered, the more you ask, the easier (and more fun) it gets”
Recharge your inspiration to ask for the sale. Every single time. Irrespective of whether you are online or offline. Read Margarita’s full story here
Excerpted from "The Original Chicken Soup For The Soul, Twentieth Anniversary Edition"
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