Business Relationships at Work that Work!

Apapted from the original provided by Keith Dugdale and David Lambert co-authors of ”Smarter Selling - Next generation sales strategies to meet your buyer’s needs - every time”.

The main focus for the ground-breaking book Smarter Selling is exte
al customers. This focus emerged as a result of the publisher’s desire to invent an eye-catching title that would appeal to sales professionals everywhere.

However, the full application for the approaches in Smarter Selling, distilled into the Smarter ‘Selling’ - Building Better Exte
al and Internal Relationships™ training programme is encapsulated in the quote on the back cover:

“Everyone sells. Some people sell ideas, some sell services and some sell products.”

The approaches used in the programme and book are totally applicable in either internal or exte
al environments.

Why use the programme for internal consulting?

A major study in the late 1990’s revealed that more than 75% of business change projects failed to meet their objectives. Of the top 10 barriers to success, 7 out of 10 factors were people related. Of the top 10 success factors, 100% were people related.

The message for internal consultants (and others) is clear. Whatever brilliant initiative you are implementing, or support you are providing, you must communicate your messages appropriately to be successful.

Things start to go wrong when the internal consultant presents their ideas focusing on the features of the change and the benefits of the change from the consultant’s and possibly the organisation’s perspective, with little effort to articulate the impact on the listener and how the change will benefit them personally.

The approach - putting people and relationships first - seems obvious and conceptually easy. The implementation is another story.

Business partnering?

One of our partner organisations recently worked on a project with a leading technology company, well-known for outsourcing non-core functions. They had a problem - their relationship with a business partner who managed their facilities was not working.

The problem was the result of the company’s staff continually applying constant pressure on the outsourced service provider to get the best price, so the provider was ready to quit the relationship. They needed a more equitable relationship. The Smarter ‘Selling’ programme was used to re-orient the mindsets of the company’s staff towards true partnership and provide them with the tools to effect the change. Specifically:

Octagon™ profiling highlighted the team’s preference for beating the provider into submission (My Best/Better Than You) and focusing on hard facts without engaging on a more personal level (Fact/Feeling) with a tendency to focus on the detail of the agreement while losing sight of the overall drivers for the outsourcing arrangement (Big Picture/Detail). Try out the Octagon™ for yourself here…
The use of the I We U framework to open meetings, transformed the dynamics of meetings from one of control by the company’s team to one where the provider felt involved and able to contribute ideas.
Use of SHAPE questioning enabled both parties to maintain a positive focus on the desired outcomes for the assignment versus too strong a focus on energy-sapping day-to-day issues. Using this approach, day-to-day issues were addressed in the context of achieving the joint outcomes desired by both parties, creating a positive, collaborative environment.
Value Sheets and CC letters were used to maintain structure during discussions and provide clear records of points discussed.
SHAPE as a coaching process

Many questioning approaches exist to uncover the needs of users and buyers. Interestingly, the questioning process (called SHAPE) taught in the programme has also found favour as a coaching tool - most memorably when used within the prison services environment for counselling prisoners and even dealing with potential suicides! Many people are familiar with the GROW coaching model, which stands for:

Goals - what we want to achieve.
Reality - where we are now.
Options - what we can do.
Will/When - what will we commit to and by when.
The parallels with SHAPE are obvious. SHAPE breaks down as:

Surface - to uncover facts.
Hunt - to understand challenges.
Adjust - to check, ask permission or change direction.
Paint - to understand desired outcomes.
Engage - to agree what happens next.
In work carried out with the HR function of a leading technology business, a gap was revealed between the HR function’s perception of the value they added compared to that which the business perceived. Business units viewed HR as a group detached from business reality, with an agenda driven by head office that did not take account of local needs. A programme of workshops and coaching in SHAPE questioning resulted in drastically improved internal customer satisfaction ratings surveyed six months after the initiative.

In a second example the business development coaches in a major consulting firm were struggling to engage partners both in terms of their own roles, and in terms of cross selling services that they did not deliver. The programme was used to achieve a big change in approach.

First, partners needed to recognise that the coaches were there to help them and not to threaten them or question their ability. That was achieved partly through understanding differences in behaviours (using the Octagon™ as a reference. Many of the coaching team tended towards Big picture (versus Detail), Feeling (vs Facts) and Free-flowing (vs Organised). The majority of the partners were the opposite. A lot of work was done around developing the ability of the coaches to flex and match behaviours in order to help partners’ thinking.

The next key step was to use SHAPE questioning, with a particular focus on Adjust questions, to signal to partners that the coaches were there to help with their issues, not to coerce them into selling something they did not understand.

Once the trust was developed, other elements came into play. I We U, the other elements of SHAPE questioning and to a lesser extent Levels of Thinking.

The result was that relationships improved and the coaches came to be seen as a valuable and well-used resource.

In summary

The mindset of helping buyers make the best decision for them, as opposed to pushing a solution that is best for the seller, applies equally in an internal or exte
al consulting/selling environment. The core approaches described in Smarter Selling and implemented through “Smarter ‘Selling’ - Building Better Exte
al and Internal Relationships™” training programme are equally effective in both environments.

Everyone sells. Some people sell ideas, some sell services and some sell products. Some ‘sell’ internally within an organisation; some exte
ally. In an incredibly competitive world, the best way to differentiate your product, service or idea is through focusing on the people side of the ‘sale’- on the quality of the relationship.