Customer Relationships - Wide AND Deep

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software makes it easy to view customers as statistics. "How many calls have you made?" "How many answers to our email blast did we get?" Similarly, sales management software encourages pipeline analysis, e.g. "How many suspects, prospects, customers do we have?" "What is our conversion percentage from suspects to customers?"

Don't get me wrong. I'm in favor of tracking the stats. The reports are a good indication about whether things are going well or not. But quantitative analysis only tells part of the story. While it will tell you how many relationships you have, you have to dig deeper to determine the quality of those relationships. CRM software will give you some hints. If you see either old or a large number of unresolved issues with a customer, that's a sure indication of a deteriorating relationship. Similarly, if you see a large number of referrals you know your relationship is healthy. The problem is the 80% in between.

The older I get, the more I believe there is no substitute for human to human interaction. Human relationships are just too complex to be automated. You have to visit a customer to see what's going on. You find out things that would never otherwise come to your attention. Visiting a customer gives you a chance to celebrate with them, such as when they have just landed a huge new deal or your contact gets a promotion or achieves a higher level of education. It also gives you a chance to say, "Did you know we have a way of dealing with that issue?" about a challenge they didn't even consider asking you about.

How do you do this? Either you visit them or invite them to visit you. As I've said before, I never charged customers for phone calls or emails, because I WANTED them to call. Maybe I was giving up a quarter hour of billable time here and there, but I more than made up for it by being able to bill for a whole day when I visited them. But getting them to visit you is a whole other matter.

At my former firm, we struggled with getting customers out for events. Accountants can be a tough crowd! They shy away from anything that might be sales related. They tend to stay in their offices. You have to give away a significant amount of practical content to even get their attention. Charging them to attend a customer event is problematic at best. Then, when you finally get them to come, you have to crack the whip with your own staff to be sure they actually talk to the customers instead of to each other.

At the end of the day, there is no better relationship than knowing your customer so well that they view you as a trusted business advisor rather than just a vendor who uses CRM.

Be True to Your School

Yesterday I attended an alumni event at PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PwC), where I spent my formative years as an accountant. It was my first alumni event in longer than I care to admit, which was a big mistake. Several people I remembered from the good old days attended and I met several others. It's easy to meet people when you have so much in common. I actually ran out of business cards. My advice to you: if a firm you used to work for has an alumni event, go! Of course they see it as an exercise in relationship building (i.e. selling services), but it is a relationship that is mutually beneficial. You get to strengthen personal relationships as well as getting some Professional Development hours.

While we're on the subject of PD, could we talk about accountants presenting to accountants? Yesterday's talk was "The Economic Downturn: Practical Strategies and Ideas to Protect Your Business." It was an excellent subject presented by John McKenna, a partner in PwC's Corporate Advisory & Restructuring Group. McKenna is clearly an experienced, roll up the sleeves and get to it kind of guy. He had a bank of slides that analyzed the topic, dividing it into long term and short term tactics. He emphasized the defensive side of protecting your business, then he turned it around and gave some great tips about using a downturn to go bargain hunting.

The thing that was missing was the war stories. I love it that he broke down the topic into logical chunks and put them on the slides, but I can read slides too. What keeps me on the edge of my seat is the real life kind of stories, like the entrepreneur who was down to financing his company on his personal credit card and was about to call it quits when he landed the big sale, or the little company that managed to swallow the big one. I want to hear about the personalities of the players and the cool solutions to apparently unsolveable problems. The sort of story you'd tell to a bunch of colleagues over a beer.

One thing I'll say about McKenna is that he really came alive when asked a question. Someone wanted more information about dealing with bankers. McKenna had an excellent response off the top of his head and he had some good advice about how it's not enough to present a plan to the bank, you really have to believe it. Bankers are good at what they do; they can smell BS a mile away.

This change when someone gets off-script is actually normal. Many people are too formal when making presentations. For example, a lawyer friend of mine had to make a presentation to the International Olympic Committee as part of a bid. There are no second chances in something like that, so all the participants were professionally coached in how to make presentations. Here's what he had to say about that experience:

"At first they told me that they had to set up the cameras, so we just talked. They asked me questions about my background and the bid. Then they started filming and I did my presentation. Afterwards we had a long debrief using the footage they had just shot. They showed me that I was too stiff and wooden in my style. Then they said they had some video of how I should do my presentations. It turned out to be me answering questions at the beginning. They had been filming the whole time. They showed me how my hand motions and tone of voice were much friendlier and sincere when I was just talking. And that was the style I needed to maintain when giving a prepared speech. Really, I just had to be me."

It isn't easy presenting to accountants. We tend to be an unresponsive audience. It is often difficult to get us to participate or ask questions. But it's worth it. If you can just be yourself and talk as though you were among friends, it's surprising how quickly the audience will warm to you and what you have to say.

The Narrative Budget

If the budget is viewed as a pointless exercise inflicted on a company by its accountants, then that is all it will remain.

If a budget is viewed as a plan, a blueprint for the future, then that is what it will become.

Nobody was born with the innate ability to budget. It is a discipline and, like all disciplines, the harder you work at it, the better you become. Experience, intuition and skill combine as you get better and better at honing in on what can reasonably be accomplished in the next twelve months.

A common weakness with budgets is that they are presented as a column of numbers with the focus on the bottom line. But what if more attention were paid to the story behind the numbers? The numbers by themselves will not energize a department or motivate a team, but a story can.

• If we hit our first quarter sales goal, then there will be money for getting that hot new prototype into production.


• If we hit our cost reduction target, then we can pay bonuses.


• If we all support our environmental initiatives, then we can be both responsible and profitable.

In 1999, an Interchurch Stewardship Committee of eight major churches looked at church budgeting and realized that the mission was getting lost in the numbers. Church budgets did not engage church members. In their publication "The Narrative Budget", they made some powerful points that speak to organizations of every size and type:

• A budget should tell a story.


• A budget should reflect your statement of purpose.


• When people feel that their involvement is vital to the success of the organization, they will actively support it.

What then is a narrative budget?

• A way of presenting a budget in descriptive terms, not just numbers.


• A way of presenting the financial needs of the organization while demonstrating how the mission is being supported.


• A way of helping people relate their time and talent to the ongoing mission.

Narrative budgeting doesn't replace the numbers; it supports them. Normally budgets are broken down by department, which is necessary for departmental reporting. Having done that, try recasting the budget in terms of goals. Support the goals budget with a narrative describing how everyone's contributions add up to achieving those goals.

Final words: be patient and persistent. These are new muscles that you're asking people to stretch.

Getting The Most From a Conference

Whether you're an attendee or a presenter, here are some tips to help you get more out of a trade show or conference.

Attendee

• Get it in your calendar! I don't know how many times I've said, "Oh yeah, I meant to get to that" when a friend has mentioned going to a conference.
• Decide ahead which booths / presentations you want to see. It will help you focus on what's important.
• Stay away from the beer nuts. [Inserted by my editor/wife.]
  
• Go with an open mind. Sometimes the banner across the booth is just what the company is promoting now. If you talk to them about what you need, you may find that they have something else to offer you.
• Don't worry about giving out your card. The worst that can happen is that you have to say no to a follow up phone call or unsubscribe to unwanted email. Networking is more of an art than a science. There is no way of knowing who is in a position to help you, but I can guarantee that if you never give out your card, you will miss important opportunities.
• Talk to other attendees. By definition, you have a common interest. Use the opportunity to make a few contacts. If there is a reception or meal, I look for the people on the edge of the group or sitting by themselves. They usually welcome some company.
• Get the presentation notes electronically. If I'm handed a big binder full of material, it ends up on a shelf and will eventually migrate to the recycle bin. If I have the material in a pdf file, I'm more likely to find it when I need it.
• Be an active listener. It REALLY helps the presenter if you nod your head occasionally (I don't mean the sleepy kind of nod) to show that you are following along. Feel free to ask questions and participate. Everyone will get more out of it.
  

When you get back to the Office

• Sort through the business cards you received. Enter any new contacts into your contact software (you DO have contact software, right?)
• Send an email to your new contacts so they don't forget you. If you can send the answer to a question they asked or point them to a web site they'd be interested in, so much the better.
• If you received any material of interest to co-workers, send them a copy! That way your company gets a lot more bang for their money.
• A consulting firm I worked for had the rule that anyone who went to a conference had to do a presentation at the next company meeting. It was a good rule.

Presenter

• Many of us are technical experts in our field, but not seasoned presenters. At the very least, practice your presentation in front of a critical audience.
• Don't believe them when the event organizer says that you will have access to high speed internet. Really. This is from experience. Make sure you have a local or cached copy of everything you want from the web.
• Dress for success. [Inserted by my wife/editor.]
• Give out your card and collect as many cards from your audience as you can. Act on these contacts while they're still warm, even if it's just to tell them where they can get an electronic version of your presentation.
• Get multiple uses from your material. You put so much effort into creating it. Try reformatting it into an article for a magazine that serves your industry. If you then reprint it after it's published, it can be a powerful marketing message for your customers.
• Don't cram your time too full of material. There is only so much that an audience can absorb in an hour. Limit yourself to three key points, but make sure you give your audience a way to find out more (i.e. your web site or contacting you).
• Be interactive. Get to know your audience. Try to find out where their interest lies. Ask them questions, e.g. Have any of you faced this situation before?
  

When you get back to the office

[See above!]

At the end of the day, conferences are all about relationships, oh and maybe a little learning as well.