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Business Growth 1
Wind blowing on glass
Place where writing is business
Sweet home Chicago
By Paul R.
Lloyd
The
expertise of others in your company
The Hawk stirs dust
creating swirls of brown that sweep into the ash tree outside my
window, making the branches dance in a syncopated rhythm. Robins and
cardinals dot the higher branches where strands of grass hang from
their beaks. A bright red male cardinal sings a tune that sounds
like he’s asking his mate if it’s time to make eggs yet, but his
tune is not mournful or bluesy. It’s a happy song because he knows
the answer is yes. Along the back fence, two squirrels dance.
Frank hands me
a cup of joe as I turn back from the window. “Spring’s coming,”
I smile at
Frank before blowing air across the top of my mug. “It’s like that
feeling you get before closing a sale.”
“Speaking of
sales, you were going to tell me about how I should be taking
advantage of the expertise of others in my company.” Frank sips his
coffee while staring at me with wide eyes.
I lean back in
my antique oak office chair and put my feet up on the old gun-metal
gray desk with the linoleum top. “One of the ways you add value for
your prospect is the team you bring to the table. Your prospect may
have narrowed a choice down to your transformers or the transformers
manufactured by one of your competitors. In addition to your
product, which has to compete in terms of quality, price, and
service, what do you bring to the table?”
Frank’s eyes
rolled towards the ceiling and then back down to meet mine. “I’ve
built a solid relationship with them, so they trust me.”
“That’s good as
far as it goes.” I start bouncing a pen on the desktop.
“It gets them
free tickets to the Cubs.”
I flip the pen
end over end into the air and catch it as it falls. “When the Cubs
are back in town that will mean something to them. What else?”
“What else is
there?” Frank asks.
“How about a
team of in-house engineers who developed your special technology and
who are available to solve problems? Perhaps one of your colleagues
is a widely published author and nationally recognized expert on
transformer technology. Who on your team can you bring to the
prospect to clinch the deal?”
“Well, if I was
selling transformers, that might be a good idea. But I sell a
service, or did you forget that?” Frank smirks before taking another
sip of coffee.
“Didn’t forget.
Just wanted to include a manufacturing example for the readers.
Never know who is in manufacturing.”
“Readers? What
are you talking about?”
“Readers. Some
of them might be into service sales also. Here at Zuk-Lloyd
Associates, we build teams of independent, senior-level experts for
each assignment who will be the people who actually perform the
work. This gives us a significant competitive edge over others
creative services firms that sell projects at the partner level, and
then pass the work down to a team of less experienced, junior-level
employees. We include biographies in the proposal document, and may
bring some or all of these experts to a meeting with the prospect.”
“That’s
impressive,” says Frank. “So you use senior people even though you
could hire less experienced talent and make a few bucks?”
“We earn our
money by building long-term relationships with clients who trust us
to deliver quality work.”
Frank took
another sip of coffee, picked a pencil up from my desk and flipped
it into the air where it bounced off the ceiling and then plummeted
to my desk top to take three short hops before skidding to a stop.
The pencil point remained in place.
“Didn’t break,”
I say.
“About as
impressive as that example you’re going to give me about how you
bring together senior-level teams.”
After another
sip of coffee, I say, “In one assignment, we knocked out three
competitors simply by bringing in the team that would actually be
doing the work for our client. These seasoned pros were able to
answer the prospect's questions on the spot, drawing on their
20-plus years of experience each. The prospect kept raising the
question of each person on the team: ‘…and you will be the person
who actually performs the work?’ The ‘yes’ from each team member
reassured the prospect and clinched the deal.
“So where do
you find all these senior people?” Frank asks.
“Let’s talk
about that next time. We both have work to do.” I shake my mouse to
loosen up the screen saver. The sweet strains of the cardinal’s
spring song fills my office as Frank heads for the door.
Zuk-Lloyd Associates, Inc. – Creative writing and art solutions.
We help
clients increase sales by turning ordinary business information into
extraordinary stories.
Contact:
Paul R. Lloyd
630-393-6516
info@zuklloyd.com
www.zuklloyd.com
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