Collaborating with your clients can be intensive and a lot more difficult than simply showing up and loading your standard PowerPoint® presenta- tion. When done correctly, though, it can prove well worth the effort. The resulting solutions are often stronger, more effective, and more creative than anything salespeople or their cli- ents could have developed indepen- dently – and these custom-tailored solutions are unique market strengths where many companies might offer similar solutions.
“Collaborative selling is one of the ways we protect our domestic manufacturing,” says Linette Sharpe, a project manager with a product developer and manufacturer of personal-care products. While many of its overseas competitors offer a lower-cost “pick one from column A and one from column B” approach to product development, this manager gains ground with a collaborative ap- proach. It may be a bit more expen- sive when you look at cost alone, but, when you look at the big picture, her input and experience are invaluable. Here are seven tips from Sharpe and other experts for rolling up your sleeves and working side by side with your customers and prospects to solve their most pressing business issues.
1. DO YOUR HOMEWORK. It’s hard to generate a head full of ideas if you don’t know what your prospect company is currently doing, what its most pressing business is- sues are, or what it’s tried in the past. Sharpe dedicates significant resources to following industry news; reading press releases; tracking fashion, cos- metic, and celebrity trends; and bring- ing that information back to the sales and product-development teams. “We try to stay on top of what the customer’s doing and where the trend is coming from next,” she says. “We get to know our customer’s brand. We talk a lot about being ‘brand right’ and ‘brand true.’ You can’t cold call that kind of thing. You have to do the research.”
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Once you have a good view of your customer’s landscape, you can take a look at your customer’s challenges through the lens of your own exper- tise, seeing where your company’s products and services mesh with the customer’s needs – and where potent opportunities for collaboration exist.
2. GIVE UP YOUR BUSINESS CARD. If you and your client are eyeing each other across a boardroom table just waiting for the other cowboy to draw first, it’s tough to relinquish your respec- tive roles. That’s why it’s critical to set aside titles and meet on even ground. “I start the meeting with, ‘Forget about what I sell. Tell me about the state of your business,’” says Thomas Barnett, the VP of sales for a network- security provider. Once everyone’s set aside his or her business hat and is prepped for teamwork, the informa- tion and ideas will flow more freely – leading to more realistic, creative solutions.
3. THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX. The better part of the word “co-cre- ation” is “create.” And, to be creative, you need to unlock the chains. That’s why one of the first things Sharpe does is have what she refers to as a “blue-sky meeting.”
“The sky’s the limit,” she explains.
“We try not to talk about cost in those meetings. We try not to talk about feasibility.” Instead, the goal is idea generation – and only when ideas have been generated does the conversation turn to what’s possible at what price level. Barnett takes a similar approach: “As much as I can get my customers to think outside of the box, that’s where I find myself to be more successful,” he says. “Our goal is to never have the same
product for any two customers,” says Sharpe. “That level of customization can only occur when you set the spec sheets and product catalogs aside and start with a blank sheet of paper.”
4. GROUND YOUR SOLUTION IN REALITY. Pie-in-the-sky products aren’t going to impress the customer if they’re cost prohibitive or if they depend on tech- nology that won’t be market-ready for another four years. Once you’ve developed the ideal solution, check in with your own research and develop- ment and manufacturing teams to see how realistic it is.
Sharpe says some of her competitors
are “wildly creative” but aren’t in touch with what customers really need – and that grounding in reality is what sets
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