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I’m a relationship guy, and I’ve benefitted from sitting on both sides of the table: doing business development for services companies and buying many of those same services in my role as a leader in product management. I’ve gained a valuable perspective on how successful relationships are born, from lead generation to nurturing, contract negotiations, a kickoff meeting, discovery process, gathering requirements, and finally (at long last!), delivery.
Rinse, repeat.
Every growth organization spends its waking hours figuring out how to manage and control this wild journey. But there’s a straightforward (notice I didn’t say “simple”) way to improve on this process, a way that turns it entirely on its head.
Think about the journey from the customer’s perspective.
It all starts with a seemingly obvious question (obvious to me, anyway): Who’s the customer?
Don’t just think of your primary buyer or business development contact, or even the sponsors, the senior executives, or the Board members. The stakeholders can include not only the key decision makers but also the influencers that surround them and even the ordinary users whose daily work will be impacted by new products and workflows. Their willingness and ability to adapt can help determine the success or failure of a new product or program.
Once you’ve identified customers at all levels of the organization, listen to them. Take their concerns seriously. If there’s a disconnect between what they understand and expect, then be prepared to either change your plans accordingly or persuade them to change their way of working.
Empathize with your customers, and they’ll empathize with you in return.
Taking this comprehensive approach can help you identify obstacles in advance and even convert skeptics into champions. This long view will carry you through delivery, into change management, and help you build lasting relationships.
I’ve been a (pretty successful) salesperson myself, and I know that every salesperson worth their salt understands the importance of asking questions and paying attention to the answers: What problems do the customers face? What are their long-term goals? How will this program deliver success?
But at the same time, the customers are engaged in their own simultaneous discovery process.
Has this tech services company solved this type of problem for other clients before? Will they propose a solution based on what we need, or try to impose a templated solution on us? Will the rest of our organization get behind them?
Most importantly: Is this the right partner to help us achieve our goals?
Think about what you would require from a partner in order to convince you to do a deal. What would you want to see – case studies, sales collateral, references – to get a new initiative through all the necessary approvals? Then make sure you’re offering the same set of information and assurances in return.
No one wants to pay someone to warm a seat or punch a clock – even more so at an enterprise level. That means your customers don’t care how hard you have to work, only that you deliver what you say you will.
But they’re more than willing to pay for outcomes.
Put your money where your mouth is, and shift the risk away from the customer: Establish what it is you’ll deliver, quote a flat (and fair) price, and then deliver it. On time, per the customer’s specs.
Once you’ve demonstrated that you can do that, everything will get easier. Your next discussion will come from a position of mutual trust, and you can build a long-term, profitable relationship.
Most tech services companies turn product delivery into a telephone game in which the customer is at one end of the conversation, the engineers are at the other, and there’s an enormous chain of order-takers in between. The longer the chain, the greater the chance for error, which means mistakes, delays, costs, and unhappy customers.
If your employees are all as good as you say they are, then trust them to interact with your customers directly. Let them present their work after each sprint, get feedback from customers, offer their expertise, and then get to work on the next sprint. Your employees will gain from the experience, the customers will gain confidence in your work, and the quality of your work will improve.
The customer-acquisition journey is a long and complex process, and it’s one that’s best understood from the customer’s perspective.
Always put yourself in your customers’ shoes. Think about all the things they have to navigate just to work with you, and then think about how you can make the process more convenient, more transparent, more valuable, and more convincing.
After all, once you sign a customer up for one deal, you have to repeat the process with every subsequent project. If you can earn their trust up front, then they’ll actually look forward to the next conversation.
