RESET: Developing Multiple Paths To Connection

If you want to understand the importance of developing multiple paths to a sustainable client connection, check out this video from Wayne O’Neill.

Welcome to our continuing series about connecting with our clients, and this is another really important concept that has a lot of counterintuitive thoughts in it, that I want everybody to really pay attention to. Cause it’s something that we really obsess about when we’re coaching our clients, and that’s having multiple paths to connecting to an organization to get decisions and also to get a more robust account relationship.

Here’s two illusions that we see a lot of our clients buy into. Look, I think everybody that’s watching this video series knows that starting at the bottom and, and talking to people that technically maybe understand what you do, whether it’s in information technology or design and construction. It’s not a bad thing, but those people can’t typically carry your water and help you to build a broader more dynamic relationship.

Some of you then know to jump to, maybe let’s call as high as we can, let’s call it the CEO level or call it the top leadership level, that’s not bad, but I want you to think about something cause as we coach clients on the other side, if those decisions are forced down that doesn’t make it go as fast as you might think or as robust.

Here’s another illusion, you may be focused on consensus selling. Let’s get as many people within the client kind of voting for us, we become the popular decision. Again, that’s not bad but it’s not fast, and it’s not robust.

Here’s what I want you to think about… Smart clients are looking for a solution, and a solution requires you understanding business and political issues, and those business and political issues will lead you to a solution that’s hiding in plain sight. So you gotta come into some places that you may be comfortable with, but you also gotta come into places that are uncomfortable.

If you’re used to talking to technical people, I want you to think about talking to financial people, if you’re not used to engaging some of the other service providers that that client is working with, I want you to start to learn, if you’re in the design and construction business, who are their IT providers, if you’re in the IT side, who are their, who are people they’re working with design and construction, or maybe strategic intent firms.

I want you to think about how you would talk to the board, how you would talk to their people that are driving their operational model. Think of a lot of different angles, whether it’s a university or it’s a healthcare system, or it’s somebody doing mission critical.

Decision making is always much more complicated and much more dynamic than you may think. Why is all this important because the solution, what you want is, you want an account that is based on solutions and something that is um, going to have a, gonna be a robust um, relationship with you over a long period of time.

Thanks for watching this morning, and be safe.