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How to shoot straight but miss the target
“We’d like to do business with you but you don’t have
experience in our industry.”
by John Graham
Companies today face the same daunting problem that confounds so many job
seekers. It’s the high hurdle of transferable experience.
Whether it’s an individual attempting to get a job or a company trying
to break into a new market, both are faced with the identical difficulty
of having someone recognize the value of their knowledge and experience,
even though these qualities may not be directly related to a new field or
industry.
Even when applicants offer skills, a proven track record and experience
that are an ideal match for a particular position, they’re passed
over. Why? The individual has worked in a different field.
Or consider how companies often use the Internet and other techniques for
locating consultants and other vendors. Frequently, the qualification guidelines
are so narrow and precise, few prospects even come close to meeting the
requirements.
What’s the problem? Why not take a highly defined approach? Why not
be as exact as possible? Isn’t it better to screen respondents as
precisely as possible? Doesn’t such a selection process narrow the
risk? Maybe––and maybe not. Using a fine filter has the major
downside of missing valuable applicants, those with experience and skills
that can benefit the company.
In the same way, automatically ruling out a consultant or vendor because
of a lack of direct experience in a particular industry may close the door
to valuable insights and solutions.
If the narrowly defined approach is the best approach, then IBM should have
passed on Lou Gerstner, instead of selecting him as chairman and CEO. And
it’s Dr. Gerstner who is credited with turning around IBM. His CEO
experience was with RJR Nabisco, a consumer products company and 11 years
with American Express and its largest subsidiary, American Express Travel
Related Services.
Meg Whitman made an even more dramatic move, going from Hasbro, Stride Rite
and FTD to head eBay! Under her stewardship, eBay has, of course, become
one of the world’s highest valued companies.
What’s clear is that these companies were looking for certain qualities
to deal with what they understood to be key issues and it was those objectives
that drove the selection process, not specific industry experience.
Here’s the point: companies are better served selecting employees,
consultants or vendors on the basis of what needs to be accomplished rather
than specific industry experience. Many of those who are passed over
or ruled out may very well be the right fit.
So companies can broaden their perspective and take better advantage of
their opportunities for solving problems, here are guidelines for a more
beneficial selection process:
1. What do we need to accomplish (rather than who do we need to
get to do it)? This is a case when what looks like the wrong fit
turns out to be the right one. A large agricultural company liked a marketing
services firm’s thinking about the way manufacturers should relate
to and support their dealers. At an initial meeting, the issues discussed
focused on helping the more than 400 dealers enhance their businesses and
how the marketing firm had helped companies in other industries achieve
this objective.
At no point did the prospective client ask, “What other agricultural
companies have you worked for?” If that question had been raised,
how would the marketing firm have responded? The answer would have been
“no.”
Objectives driven selection opens the door to finding relevant solutions.
2. Who will be objective and challenge us (rather than trying to
figure out who will tell us what we want to hear)? “We know
what we want,” stated the company’s coordinator of special projects.
“You’re welcome to apply, but I want to make it clear that you
must have experience in our field. We’ve had trouble in the past.
We have a way of doing things.”
The tone of his comments and just the way he spoke left the three members
of the vendor team with the clear feeling that the “new ideas welcome”
flag was not flying over that company.
While such an approach may get a company what it wants, chances are that
it won’t get what it needs.
3. Who will give us a fresh perspective (rather than just what’s
going on in our industry)? The manufacturer of quality women’s
jeanswear selected a consultant to help figure out how to increase the company’s
market share among independent women’s clothing stores.
Research revealed that many women don’t wear jeans or are displeased
with the ones they own because of poor fit. The consultant developed a program
that took advantage of the company’s support of breast cancer research.
With the “try the fit, help the cause” program, the company
donated $1 each time a woman tried on a pair of its jeans. This reciprocation-type
program produced increased sales.
What’s interesting is that the consultant had no previous experience
in the apparel field. Often it’s the outside perspective that can
see most clearly what needs to happen inside a business.
4. Who won’t be afraid to pull us out of our ruts (rather
than just trying to make us feel good)? William Lamb is a CPA with
a talent for finding and recovering monies for companies. Companies pay
the same bill more than once, fail to collect discounts and rebates, and
even pay invoices long after a service stopped. His offer is compelling.
He looks for the money free of charge. And then splits recovered funds with
the company. In one case, he handed over a check for $150,000.
“What a great service,” you say. “There’s no downside.
It’s a winner!” Sure sounds like it, doesn’t it? Well,
not to business executives who seem threatened by the painful thought that
someone might hold them accountable for negligence. Even though Lamb’s
professional experience suggests that many companies are bleeding tens of
thousands of dollars of money every year, they refuse to close the wound.
5. Who will base their work on basic principles (rather than offering
what’s in vogue at the moment)? As incredible as it may seem,
discipline is missing from far too many companies. That’s right, just
plain, basic discipline.
The near total lack of discipline is painfully obvious in companies. This
week the president suggests this new sales idea and next week there’s
another one. It’s much like the little lock in Alice in Wonderland
that is constantly running from one place to another. When asked what he
is doing, he says, “I’m looking for a key to unlock me.”
Every new “how-to-increase-sales” system finds instant takers
who hope that will be the key to unlock a stream of new sales.
It’s following the principles that makes the difference. There’s
plenty of wreckage left over from the results of creative accounting. It’s
the same way in marketing. The common cry is, “We need sales.”
It’s heard every day in thousands of companies. And it’s dead
wrong. What’s needed is customers––those who want to buy.
Just because you and I want to sell something doesn’t mean someone
wants to buy it.
The principle is to create the customers who want what is sold. Once that
happens, the sale is easy. Unfortunately, most companies don’t follow
the essential principles.
6. Who will ask us the right questions (rather than handing us cookie
cutter answers)? The president of an insurance organization met
with an executive of a marketing firm. In short order, he asked, “Well,
what can you do for us?” The response was interesting: “If you
thought I was coming to this meeting ready to lay out the answers, I’m
sorry, we start by asking questions.”
While wanting answers may be normal, the pursuit of answers is the problem.
For example, get inside almost every company and what you find is an almost
endless series of failed initiatives. The place is littered with programs
and activities that stopped almost before they started and others that simply
faded away because of a lack of commitment and follow-through. But there
is always more to take their place.
This pervasive pattern is the direct result of basing decisions on what
is presumed to be true, personal prejudice and unsubstantiated opinion.
If someone comes up with the idea of doing radio advertising, inevitably
others will come out with the stations they listen to as the ones that should
be chosen. What’s so amazing is that this is the way far too many
decisions are made.
Unless we ask the right questions, we are doomed to come up with the wrong
answers.
All this suggests that thinking too narrowly can have a negative impact
on companies that want to grow. Almost every industry can suffer from the
inbreeding of ideas. While we may feel more comfortable with those who speak
our language and share our specific interests, the value of opening the
doors to new concepts and approaches may be more than worth the risk.
© 2005 Graham Communications
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John R. Graham is president of Graham Communications,
a marketing services and sales consulting firm. Mr. Graham is the
author of four books on marketing and sales, including Break the Rules
Selling: Success Strategies that Beat the Competition (Superior Books).
Mr. Graham writes for a variety of marketing and sales columns for
business and trade publications and he presents his Magnet Power presentations
at company and association meetings. He can be contacted at 40 Oval
Rd., Quincy, MA 02170; by telephone at 617-328-0069; by fax at 617-471-1504;
or by email at j_graham@grahamcomm.com. The web site is grahamcomm.com. |
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