Client Satisfaction. It’s a goal we strive for in selling. Without it, of course, the chances of account expansion are highly unlikely. It can be an elusive target, though, given the typical focus in working to insure your products and services delivered to a client are the very best that they can be. Delivery excellence is critical but it’s simply one element of client satisfaction, albeit the one that receives the most attention. And certainly you can make a case that it’s very important to all clients. But it’s not the only element that determines client satisfaction. Not by a long shot.
To work the issue, let’s consider a B2C example that is familiar to us all. Imagine that in your travels last week you stayed at a chain hotel. Just today, a familiar type of email appeared in your inbox. It confirmed your points, conveyed thanks and also sought your feedback in an attached survey. You were asked to provide ratings in several pre-selected categories like food quality, staff friendliness, room cleanliness and others chosen by the chain’s marketing department. But on the night of your stay, you were in a room across the hall from the elevator and next to the ice machine room. You didn’t sleep a wink. But, interestingly, noise level was not one of the categories you were provided to rate. Shaking your head, you quickly blow away the email, promising yourself that you’ll never stay in that hotel again.
In consulting with sales organizations globally over the years, I’ve learned a lot about client satisfaction. I’ve learned what works and what doesn’t. And clearly, this B2C hotel example highlights something that doesn’t work. It’s a mistake that you’d like to think would be a rarity in the sophisticated B2B world of serving large enterprise accounts. Unfortunately, though, it happens all the time. For it’s all too common that selling organizations in the enterprise world make the same mistake made by the hotel chain when seeking information about their client’s satisfaction level. They provide the same type of boilerplate categories and miss the mark on so many levels.
Over the years, I’ve proposed and worked with a totally different process for client satisfaction. It’s amazing and unique in the fact that it’s both client-focused and sales-focused – not an easy combination to make happen! For instead of providing your treasured enterprise clients with pre-selected criteria, categories that may have nothing to do with their specific interests or issues, the secret is to have them choose their own categories – the items that mean the most to them. Their view, not yours. And how do you find out what’s most important? You ask. Ideally in person. And so the actual selection of what’s really important is made by the only party that matters – the client. Here’s how it works. At the start of a business relationship with a new account, you bring members of the sales and delivery teams together to meet with the new client to ask what’s most important to them. Think about that moment. The business is won. The contract is signed. The client’s goals have become your goals, their successes – your successes. The honesty needle points way up. Had you asked what was most important six weeks earlier in the middle of the pursuit, you’d have heard about lowering your prices, providing pro bono services, cutting your delivery times, etc. But things really do change when prospects transition to clients. The word “partnership” becomes real and mutual goals create long-term bonds between organizations and people, driving client satisfaction and account expansion. But only if you bother to ask.
Why don’t all selling organizations do this? Wouldn’t they all want to know what’s most important to each of their clients? Of course. But many organizations are so focused on kicking off delivery as effectively as possible that they never bother to go back to the now-candid client to ask what’s most important to them. And some organizations shift so quickly from the sales team that built relationships in the pursuit to the account management team that will steer the ship moving ahead that the concept gets lost in the shuffle, Detach with an ax…..a bad idea with new major accounts. I mentioned that the simple process is both client-focused and sales-focused. Think about it. Knowing what’s most important to your new client clearly increases your chances of successful delivery, but it also drives account growth as your proposed solutions for future business opportunities with your client will resonate through everything you’ve learned. Everything that’s most important to your client. Spot on.
It’s the magical question to ask, its answers delivering tremendous short and long-term value for clients and selling organizations alike. “Now that we’re working together, what is most important to you?”.
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