
A colleague during our informal talk session, beaming with pride blurted – “My son got into KPMG”. “Congratulations” I chimed in. With pride he shared how it happened. His son had a job offer in hand from a Big 4 Accounting firm, and then there he was interviewing with another preferred Big 4 firm. The offer on hand was expiring the next day. Just as he finished his interview, he explained the situation to the interviewer, and asked when they could make an offer as he preferred this firm over the competing firm’s offer in hand. The rest of his interviews that were not scheduled got fast tracked the same day, and he was signed up the next day.
Curious me – “So what makes your son win”. My colleague retorted – “Enormous Passion & Energy”. Apparently it was’nt about his grades. His drive is phenomenal, and gets him to meticulously prepare with questions he anticipates. The company selected him for his innovative ideas, and well thought out aggressive approach to problem solving.
I just got back from our Bi-Annual Operational review and planning session for our new fiscal year. With a new CEO at the helm, it was inspiring to see the energy and drive to not only grow, but as he put it, attain – “World Domination”. To me this meant focused growth – smell the money and ask where can we win and How ? – Do we have the right mix (people, product, price competitiveness and value stickiness).
We wonder why some people excel time after time. They are curious, always looking for new ways / methods to stay ahead, exuding the energy and passion that drives them.
A rookie year that toyed with what our culture looks like, how does it work, what behaviours we exhibit and why. It gave me time to reflect on the year that passed, and we had a year where we sowed our L3V2 (Listen, Learn Love = Voice+Value) culture. From a “forming” year to the “norming” years ahead.
Here are thoughts & stories from people, I am privileged to work with. Stories from the trenches and shout outs from the mountain. One of our finest Solution Consultants we hired just a year ago, changed the game and earned the trust in a highly competitive market place – Jonathan Setiawan. Here’s what he had to say about his approach.
I would pick these 4 words to generalize my sales methodology: Adapt, Be Creative and Drive (ABCD) Adapt: Sales situations differ and change, adaptability is required to adjust/modify the sales approach to address different situations. This also requires active Listening and Learning. Be Creative: Creativity is required for coming up with the best sales approach for a situation. Drive: I prefer to engage a customer early and understand needs so I drive to a solution before a tender comes out. I love winning and like that (as a team) we attack from multiple angles as needed – top down (relationship), technical, procurement etc., The skill I yearn the most is the ability to listen and learn well enough in order to make a deep analysis of the particular situation and gain trust of my Customer. For example, after your meeting with COO, you sent an email to your Sales Managers about what’s going on in the meeting – the customer’s main challenges & objectives, which people we should map, etc. That made me re think my approach.
This triggered me to create a unique demo kit that enables the right level of dialogue and discovery pertaining to a client’s needs and potential emotional insights.
Shashikant MC, our star performer who nonupled his business over 4 years. Master at his trade. A few excerpts from him that talks and walks his “style”.
I went back and told the decision maker –
“ Your decision is respected and well understood for what you need now. How would you consider your strategic objectives for the next few projects and consider total cost of ownership. How would you reuse automation scripts, leverage across multiple projects, correlation of data between projects etc.,”
These stories from the trenches and shout outs from the mountain top teach us in many ways. These people had that love for innovating, being tenacious and gaining that trust and credibility. It’s great to see our culture at play – L3V2. Some more stories next time… |
Credit To Freepik for the featured image. |
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