Focus on Strategic Outcomes

Once in a while, you encounter customers who unintentionally seek the wrong outcomes and achieve the opposite of their intention. Often, they are attracted to tactical offerings and forget their strategic outcomes.

Cost savings

Let me explain. I once had a customer in the fashion and textile industry who was struggling with growing their market share. Year after year, their number of overseas orders declined, which was also their most profitable business. The buying group, including their CEO, decided to make their prices more competitive by reducing all kinds of costs. They put a rigorous cost-savings strategy in place. All departments had to look for any cost savings, including the transportation cost of their samples. We lost their business.

Cost over quality

Their sharper costs had a positive effect on their price competitiveness. However, their overseas orders did not increase. This is because they had overlooked one important thing: Although they saved costs by choosing the lowest-cost logistic supplier, they did not realize that this was harming their business. To save costs, their shipping department tried to fill plastic transportation flyers to the max. The samples left their premises in an okay- state but arrived all wrinkled up at the final destination.

Quality over cost

They took cost savings too far in how their product samples were transported and arrived at potential new buyers in European markets. Their goods looked as if they had gone at full speed through a washing machine. As a result, the European buyers experienced a wrong impression of their products, and bids were lost.

To gain the business back, I brought a different perspective to the table. I convinced her that investment was needed instead of a cost-saving to save their international business. I recommended using standard carton boxes to get their samples at the destination in the same state as how they were packed at the origin. We won back her business, and she won more bids than ever.

The moral of this story is that it is natural for buyers to look at price, products, services, solutions and any combination of these four. However, they can make the wrong choices that affect the quality of their product. It is our job as trusted advisors to help customers focus on the right strategic outcome. That is the game-changer.

Take your buyers to new heights. Where average salespeople stay in the clouds, Trusted Advisors rise above the clouds by:

1. Changing the customer’s perspective. You create value at new heights when you can bring a different perspective to their business challenges. In the above example, the customer thought she needed to compete on price. By doing so, quality was reduced, and this was the real reason for not winning new business.
2. Think strategic. While your competitor sales reps focus on tactical moves, you help business owners see what is really important and will achieve the greatest outcome. That is strategic thinking, and that is what customers are looking for in sales executives. In the end, the CEO of the mentioned textile manufacturer realised that it didn’t make sense to implement cost savings in the international shipping component of their business.

Take your buyer to new heights. In your next calls and meetings, create value that matters to them, helping them with their strategic outcomes.