Having decided to become an Entrepreneur, everyone, including myself, is committed to an idea whole-heartedly for life. What carries you forward through this interesting journey to success is the determination and persistence to bring your idea to life.
A few weeks back, when I am still laying the foundation to be an entrepreneur, a boy, who should be in his teens, at my locality taught me an interesting lesson in entrepreneurship – “Don’t give up and keep going no matter what, you would be much closer to your goal very soon, despite the failures and hardships”
The Court
The Covid-19 Pandemic has locked down people all over the world. But, the spirit of life and its challenges have never changed since the pandemic hit us.
The boys were practicing badminton across a tiny lane during these lock-down days. My brother, being a good player, started to coach them. Quite sooner than expected, the boys entered the game mode and formed 2 teams, namely Ruby and Diamond, who were pitched against each other. Ruby Team was dominant over Diamond and kept on winning the game every day. The Diamond team was determined to win a game any day and refused to change pair, even when offered a chance.
The Game
One fine day, I pulled the Diamond team players for a conversation and asked them if they had a strategy to win the game over Team Ruby. I have seen them practicing a lot more than Ruby, deploying different tactics to win the game but in vain. They neither wanted to give up nor change the pair.
I was curious to know what kept the Diamond players going without tasting success for long and how it really feels to be on a long losing streak. That is when one of the boys opened up, saying – “We know Ruby is stronger than us, but that doesn’t make us weak. It is just that we haven’t mastered the play. If either of us changes the pair, that will end up demotivating the other partner. However, we are sure that we will taste success one day. All along, we have been maturing ourselves with such failures and we have been rectifying the mistakes. The moment we taste success would mean our game is flawless. We will fight hard until one day we win over Team Ruby”.
The Winner
I was dumbstruck by the response and was in awe of the boy who gave me this reply. I couldn’t respond or react any more other than wishing them success and left the place without any doubt on their capabilities and determination to win the game one day.
Isn’t that too much of a matured thinking from a boy in his early teens, to have taught me such a hard lesson so easy? How I wish I had learned this lesson earlier at the beginning of my career! This episode created a great impact on me and has taught me one of the greatest lessons in entrepreneurship. For days together, I couldn’t get over this episode and my thoughts were completely wound around how to implement such a lesson in my career.
Perseverance and grit are key ingredients to success not only on the entrepreneurial journey. It is the key to achieving your goals in life. Most entrepreneurs would agree that there is no safety net during the initial days of business. Challenges are aplenty, but, these are tests to your commitment and success. The test of our commitment, risk-taking skills, ability to overcome difficulties and confidence, to stretch our comfort zones, and so on.
We all are capable of achieving success: it falls in place when you have the right commitment, your ability to overcome difficulties with zeal and confidence, the flexibility to expand your comfort zone, perseverance, grit, and determination.
Stories that have morals and messages behind them are always powerful. If that story was related to business, the impact it creates is long-lasting. It helps you connect with your audience quickly and you are one step closer to the business opportunity.
In a world where information is bountiful, it becomes essential to get the right message to the audience. Stories are a good way to keep your audience hooked onto your core message.
In my two decades of experience, I have seen how relevant stories have helped me to easily mentor aspiring students, young entrepreneurs, active job seekers, acquaintances, and much more.
Well, pat yourself on the back, if you guessed that I am going to tell a short story now. Read on.
Two Frogs in a bowl of milk
To convey the message of never give up and persevere, let me share the story of two frogs which fell in a bowl of milk.
Two frogs, let me name them Bru and Tru, accidentally fell into a bowl of milk. Having swum all around the bowl, Bru and Tru realized that the edge of the bowl was too high and steep for them to get out unaided. Bru realized that it was useless to waste his energy by continuing to jump and swim since that would not get him out of the bowl, he gave up swimming and drowned. Tru persevered, refused to give in, and gradually the milk turned into solid butter, by constant churning, until he was able to use it as a foothold to jump out of the bowl.
Does that pass on a message to you?
I strongly believe stories, such as these, motivate the reader and experience the message/information/data thus shared, as opposed to just consuming it.
What can storytelling do?
Stories grab the attention of the audience quickly and maintain a connection; they help to understand the situation or topic of discussion better. Stories, quite often, may touch emotions and help connect with your audience at a personal level. In my opinion, stories turn you into an efficient presenter/communicator.
Let us talk business now. Why is storytelling important in business?
In a business setting, when you tell a story, you are personalizing the facts and putting a human face to the details presented. Suddenly, your data is applicable to people in the real world. Your audience gets a glimpse of how you overcame the challenges.
Do not underestimate the power of storytelling
If done well, the power of a great story can have a massive impact on the audience and define you as an influencer. They remember the story and the storyteller for life. It can inspire, enliven, and create instant rapport. It can move the audience to take a quick decision and it may even change lives, who knows. Never underestimate the power of storytelling. Isn’t it creative to identify the right story for every business opportunity?
Why don’t you share a story or two which, in your opinion, has influenced people/customers to take a business decision quickly? Let us keep the discussion active. Share your stories and help others to influence the decision-making process.
Everyone loves to be heard at home and in the office. While I don’t wish to discuss on the home front for obvious reasons, the one at Office needs attention. To grow, you need to take an effort to make your voice heard.
Throughout my career, I had to struggle to make my voice heard. Did that flash anything for you? I am sure an instance or two where you were unheard would have flashed for a moment. I can affirm that I was not alone.
So, what is this “To make your voice heard” all about?
It means you share meaningful ideas that help the team or the organization as a whole, solve a problem or propose new ideas, thereby promoting self-growth and organizational growth.
In my career spanning over two decades, I have seen many members of my team were hesitant to share ideas or thoughts or pass feedback, fearing backlash. They seem as though they don’t want to be heard. I wasn’t surprised though, as I had been through this during the initial days of my career.
Have you ever introspected your hesitation to speak out?
While I go downlisting my thoughts, I would advise you to take a look at yours as well.
The first thought that comes to my mind is the family upbringing, where I was not allowed to speak up when elders were around. I was trained to nod and agree with them whenever an event was planned, or a new solution was introduced to solve a family issue. I was always with a constant fear of being ridiculed and shamed by more experienced elders who took all the decisions.
Secondly, being an introvert during my teens and early adulthood could be a possible reason too. People who know me well now, wouldn’t agree If I called myself an introvert.
What did I do to overcome this struggle?
Here are a few tips to make your voice heard to grow from my experiences.
1. Don’t cringe, speak out, and come up with a solution.
When I came across a hurdle or inconvenience in the workplace, I never cringed away from complaining about any issue with my teammates or in a team meeting.
When I was with CSS(formerly Slashsupport), my PM Mr.Satish, educated me that employers prefer staff who had a strong acumen to solve problems. He trained me to communicate my ideas with a simple motto:
“Identify problems, but don’t stop there, propose an idea to solve the problem you have identified”.
Better, if you have an implementable practical new working model.
Trust me, your voice will be heard, and you will also build trust and credibility. I gained rewards early in my career, having shown such problem-solving traits.
2. Validate the solution
Don’t propose the solution based on your guts (it may or may not work). Any recommendations you share should be based on research, data analysis, focus group findings, and other reliable sources. Talk with managers across departments to identify how things get done in an organization. Work along with your peers and manager to validate the solution before it is presented to a larger audience. These efforts will help build your credibility.
3. Meetings are opportunities.
Inevitably, everyone has to attend meetings at work. What you may not realize is that meetings are a good place to build your credibility. Meetings are opportunities to ask questions. When you drive the conversation from the problem towards a solution, you will emerge as a leader. There will be always people who will be a heckler. Just ignore them and make sure your voice is heard
If you have ideas about improving efficiency at work, speak up during meetings. Organizations appreciate employee suggestions that improve productivity.
Proposed ideas may sound really uncomfortable for some people in the room or maybe even yourself. But, remember one thing -Your goal is to deliver results. So, get into the habit of finding opportunities to share your perspective. Making your voice heard is a skill. If you master it, you are ready to take leadership.
Me being a fitness freak, as you all know, once in a blue moon, my sweet tooth pops out and longs to eat my favorite dessert “Kesari” – Semolina cake. So, I ventured into the kitchen to prepare it all by myself.
With all the right ingredients and following the procedure to the T, the dessert was ready and smelling great. For a moment, I was on cloud nine to celebrate the success thinking that I got the desired output.
However, I missed the taste by a mile. It was a disappointment. The outcome was not what I had expected.
While I ponder over this to find out what went wrong, take a look at your outcomevs output
Understanding Outcome and Output
An output is an end result of an activity. It doesn’t address the value or impact it creates for your customer. On the other hand, an outcome is an achievement that occurred because of the undertaken activity. Outcomes quantify performance and assess the success of the process.
A simple way to look at it is that outcomes are the results, and outputs are the activities that support the desired results. For example, ‘increased customer satisfaction’ is a typical business outcome. An output that can help achieve this might be a quick turnaround time.
Outcomes are what businesses want and need. It is both quantitative and qualitative. Not only do outcomes reflect results, but they also reflect the experience and perception between the organization and those it serves.
Move towards what matters most- Achieve outcome by delivering outputs
It is easy to report and validate output as it is quantitative. However, outcomes are challenging. To a large extent, it depends on the perception of the people who would receive this service. And, perceptions are not easy to measure but it is essential to do so.
I have seen an organization generate reports and the dashboard that looked glossy and green. However, when they delved deeper, the customer was not happy with the service.
I am certainly not suggesting that you no longer need to report on the achievement of outputs. Instead, organizations should identify the outcome. Then, review outputs to ensure that they bring in their desired business outcome.
Aim for 99% customer satisfaction by reducing turnaround time by 20 mins.
Great organizations manage the outcome. So, look at what you offer – Are you preparing a dessert that pleases by look and smell or delivers a tasty one that brings smiles in your family?
The sales team needs battle cards. They are a staple in most B2B sales teams. And they serve one purpose: To help sales reps convince prospects to pick your product over the competition.
In a competitive world full of smart and hard-working people, what sets you apart from this competition stays forever in the minds of your customers and helps you grow in business. To prove a point to close a deal in business, the Sales has to come up with new ideas and tools and win the battle against competition. One such critical tool in the sales arsenal in this never-ending battle is the Battlecard.
What is a Sales Battlecard?
Battlecards are short, sales-ready documents that provide a deeper understanding of a specific competitor’s marketing strategy, key sales messages, product information and tactical value propositions to use when selling against your competitors. It provides your sales team with a competitive displacement “cheat sheet”. They break down the necessary information effectively and efficiently.
Why does the sales team need battle cards?
Battlecard is the tool that’ll help you convince prospects to pick you over the competition. It arms you with specific information that can help combat buyer’s objection. In simple terms, when sales reps have stats, figures, and other specific, substantive information to point to while combating potential customers’ objections, it’s more likely that they’ll be able to close deals.
Who creates Battle Cards?
The onus is on the marketing team in your organization to create the Battlecards. However, it is not an easy task to create this all alone without inputs from various stakeholders. Product Managers, Pre-sales, Business development, and to some extent, customer support should share responsibility with the Marketers to create such battle cards.
As an end-user, you are expected to share feedback with Marketing team constantly so as to keep sharpening this battle card to enable the sales to face the battle with great confidence.
Final Thoughts
New competitors prop-up quite often and existing competitors change their products or offers. Your battle cards will need to change as and when competition changes. So, you should be continually sharing feedback on what’s working (and what isn’t) and updating your sales battle cards accordingly. It is a live document that should be evaluated regularly to ensure that it’s a relevant and useful tool for your sales team.
At the end of the day, the sales battle card needs to work.
Easily said than done. It is not an easy task to create a strong battle card. I have shared my thoughts on what, why, and who about the battle card. With respect to how to develop a battle card, I recommend this article by ForteConsultancy
I had an interesting discussion with my friend on this topic – “Sell your customers what they need and not what you want” – the one that I shared a few weeks back on my blog. He chose to disagree with me on this by referring to the quote
“If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.” – Henry Ford
Customers know what they want, but don’t know how to articulate it.
In fact, customers would probably have told Ford exactly what they wanted — a faster mode of transportation. Customers might not have mentioned the need for a combustion engine, but that’s part of the art of understanding customers. They may not be aware of the options available to them but they often understand their problems.
Ask specific questions that allow you to gain insights into their business problem. Avoid feature-based questions, because customers aren’t thinking about technology features. They are worried to save costs and time in these tough times.
At the same time, avoid multiple-choice questions. Giving a customer too many choices often nets you poor feedback, but it’s also important to give them the opportunity to bring up something you haven’t anticipated.
While the quote might have been embellished over time or even misattributed to Ford, I think we need to stop using the phrase outside of its specific context. It doesn’t mean that the customer is wrong. It means we need to synthesize what they say and think more broadly about where it might take us.
Don’t keep your customers waiting. In this article, I want to discuss whether Zero Wait Time is a reality or a myth?
At the gym
I am a fitness freak and prefer to do my workout at the gym in isolation. That’s when you will have all thoughts running from pillar to post in your brain. On a pleasant Saturday afternoon, I noticed a few prospects waiting at the gym to inquire about the Fitness Plans. The front desk, after all the busy morning schedule, had gone for lunch and there was no sign of return anytime sooner. After a long wait, the prospects walked into the gym to check the facilities. They looked satisfied with all those equipment at the gym and made their way to the reception, all again to wait for a few more minutes.
I didn’t even notice when they left. They found their way out before the Front desk arrived. Do you think the prospects would have come on a later date to enroll themselves for the Fitness plans at the gym? I guess not.
The Thought
This episode made me think why not write a blog on ‘Why wait times are bad?’.
In this fast-paced world, wait times are excruciating. The queue at the billing counter in supermarkets/hypermarkets, waiting to be seated at a restaurant, a long and an impatient wait before food is served at your table, queue at the Saloon for a haircut or a massage, await at the ATM to withdraw or deposit your money, wait on the phone to talk to a Contact Center agent – the list is endless and there can be many more such examples where customers/consumers do not prefer to wait until their turn. I wouldn’t blame the customer here for his impatience, instead, the business is at stake of losing their customers for not providing a wholesome experience.
“Contact center surveys say that, while in 2014 customers were willing to wait for 13 minutes, in 2017, most customers wait less than 2 minutes. Now, more and more customers expect no hold time. If they don’t get a human, 34% of customers hang up and never call back”.
Banks have found ways to enhance the customer’s banking experience. Online banking, Mobile banking, Instant Money transfer, cashless pay, etc. – there has been a lot of innovations going on in the banking industry to improvise user experience. Virtual assistants have drastically reduced the wait time at banks and contact centers.
The leaders in business have to come up with innovative and efficient ways in order to enhance the customer experience. You tend to lose a customer if you have made him wait over and above his cut-off time and this time varies from business to business and from person to person. Hence, I would advise following a nearly-zero-wait time for all your customers so as to stay ahead of your competition and establish a long-lasting customer relationship.
In today’s world, customers are knowledgeable than we may think. The advancement of technology has made everyone’s life more sophisticated. For a customer-centric and an enthusiastic consultant like me, the need to sell what the customer wants takes a front seat in this ever-competitive market. Businesses need to restructure their sales strategy. The focus should shift to building a long-lasting relationship than being a one-time affair.
My Experience
Let me share a recent, quite interesting incident that substantiates the above statements and also proves my point that Customer is my primary focus.
I was at this customer place for a software consultation. My job was to help them streamline their activities in tune with the value offered by the product, thereby easing out their daily IT operations. Quite a few minutes into the meeting, I was able to identify that there had been a mismatch in the product edition sold than what was actually needed. All they needed was the basic edition of the software, thanks to the Salesperson who was keen to fill only his bank balance with commissions, the highest edition of the software was sold to them.
For the last couple of years, they have never used the product to its fullest potential. Neither do they have any plans to use the additional features than what was available in the basic edition? After a few rounds s of meeting with the top management and consultation, I helped them with the right choice of the product.
Sales sold what they want
I couldn’t help stop the mockery here but wonder how the customer ended up purchasing a product which they really didn’t need. I wouldn’t be surprised if someone reading my experience points out that the Salesperson was the decision-maker than the customer himself.
This boils down to the next big thing – does the Salesperson stand a chance to sell anything better or bigger to the same customer? The answer is in the negative.
Sell what customers want and build a relationship
The salesperson would have won the customer for life had he/she not been greedy. All that was lacking here was a little bit of patience and deep knowledge of Customer Experience and Satisfaction. The initial trust and relationship built would have actually helped the salesperson earn more than enough in their lifetime than the commission they received for a one-time sale.
To summarise, Customers are looking for people who can don the dual role of problem-solver and project-planner rather than someone who is just keen to fill his bank balance. Therefore, sales should sell the customers what they need, not what you want.
I would like to reiterate the quote below from my previous blog.
“Make a sale, you’ll make a living. Build a relationship, you will create a fortune.”
By developing your relationship-selling skills, you’ll position yourself as a partner who sells value, which will make you stand out from those sales reps who just try to push products down their client’s throats.
In business, customer-facing professionals can have a friendly relationship with their customers, but they can’t really be friends.
When you deal with a long term customer, you will become more comfortable in each other’s presence and will start to feel relaxed. It is probably a good thing. The good feelings that result will change the dynamics of the relationship. But, it shouldn’t change the nature of the relationship.
The moment you forget the nature of your relationship, problems arise that can destroy not only your business relationship but also the good personal relationship you might have developed.
For example,your customers, will start asking for favors. They might want to play with pricing as per their demand or expect you to support them any time they want. If you don’t give it, their feelings will be hurt and will take offense. And once that has happened, it is almost impossible to get the relationship back on track.
During a recent customer interaction, I let the guard down. I was too friendly helping the customer in setting up a feature and in the progress, unknowingly, a mistake was made which could have costed them. Though the situation was handled on time, I was still too casual which irked his frustration and anger. On realization, I had to switch back to my professional mode but the damage was already done. Further interactions, weren’t the same way it used to be.
So, never let your guard down. No matter how comfortable you become with each other, your relationship is still that of buyer and seller. You can be friendly with customers, but not a friend
In customer success, NPS (Net Promoter Score) is one of the very important metrics that give you a heads up about the customers who could possibly churn out or become brand loyalists. Before deep-diving into the Promoters engagement strategy, know the calculation behind NPS.
There are 3 kinds of customers who contribute towards calculating the NPS.
Promoters
Passive Customers
Detractors
On a scale of 10,
The supremely happy customers are those who give your product and service a rating of 9 or 10. They are your Promoters.
Passive Customers are the ones who are neither unhappy nor very happy with your product or service. They are the ones who would rate it as 7 or 8.
Customers who rate your product and service between 0 and 6 are the Detractors. I call them the unhappy ones.
NPS = (Promoters — Detractors) / Total responses
It goes without saying that the detractors are the ones with the most attention, as the probability of them to churn out is very high. On the other hand, the passive customers and the promoters should not be ignored. Many times CSM’s assume that they would remain happy forever using your product or service.
A strategy designed to address the concerns of the detractors ignoring the promoters and passive customers can cost you a fortune as it won’t take them much of a time to become a detractor.
It is absolutely necessary that as a CSM, you do have a promoter engagement strategy to keep your happy customers engaged. So what are some of the ways through which you can keep them engaged? Come, let’s see them one by one.
Testimonials
Pitch your Promoters for a written or a video testimonial that can be published on the website. This is actually a win-win situation as it is a promotion for your brand and marketing for their business.
Market your Promoters and build the brand by publishing it across various mediums. By engaging them in this promotional activity, your customers would feel elated.
A few may not engage as much as you expected. In that case, request them to review your product on external apps like G2crowd, Capterra, etc.
Make them feel like family
Grab the opportunity when a new product or feature is ready for release.
Organizations may offer early access build for all its Promoters to join them in their testing and requesting for their opinion. For their feedbacks, appreciate their time and effort. If required you can go a step ahead to give some gifts.
Felicitate brand loyalists in user conferences, trade shows, etc. If willing, invite them to be a speaker for conferences and events.
Drive product value
As a CSM, you would be aware of the customer requirement and would have also been keeping a tab on their product usage. Based on that, you can ask the customers to try implementing other features of the product that they are not currently using which might add value to the current process they follow.
Reach out to the customers, when their expected feature made it to the release. Be genuinely happy and educate them about the feature. Make them feel valued.
Look for opportunities
Customers who are happy using your product are termed “Promoters” for a reason. They will be more than happy to spread the word about your product/service. You can identify opportunities within the customer’s organization where you can see your product solving a problem or adding value. Just identify the opportunity and position your product as to how it is going to solve the problem, your customers will take care of the rest.
All the efforts taken to keep a happy customer, happier, shouldn’t go unnoticed. It is important that you list out all the promoter engagement strategies and showcase their impact during the business reviews. This will let the customer know about the value you have added to them.
These are some of the plans that you can come up with to keep your Promoters engaged. If you can think of any other ways through which your customers can be made happier, please do drop them in the comments section.
Written By
Karthik Sheshadri
Handsome :P | Young | Introvert | Music Enthusiast | Budding Writer | Budding Photographer | Cricket Fanatic | Fashion Admirer | Thamizhan | தாய் பாசம் கொண்டவன் The original article was published in Medium
