I'd like to challenge you all to find the answers to three questions that might just change the financial situation in your life or that of your organisation.
Question One. Why do I need your product or service at all?
Question Two. Why should I buy it from you rather than someone else?
Question Three. Why should I do it now, rather than wait?
If you can find answers to those three questions, you'll be in a much better financial position and don't underestimate the third question that addresses urgency, it's really important.
When I run through these at strategy sessions in boardrooms, particularly probing around that second question as to why I should use you rather than the competition, I tend to be faced with some fairly stock answers.
The first one that comes back is pricing or value and I respond with there's always a clown in town who will do it cheaper than you, so maybe we'll put a line through that one. The second one tends to be the quality of staff in the organisation, but I haven't really met any people who tell me that their team is poor so we will put a line through that one as well. The third one is the ubiquitous client service. “Alistair, the reason people keep coming back to us is the quality of our service.” Then I challenge people to be able to demonstrate that, because not many firms in Australia accurately record client satisfaction and can demonstrate their expertise. Very difficult to prove if you do not measure it.
In many ways in professional services, you're acting as a triage nurse. People and organisations come to you in situations where they've got painful problems and so your bedside manner and delivery style of your service is a real differentiator.
With that in mind, I am about to introduce you to my favourite 4 letter word beginning with F and that word is FEEL.
How you make people feel in all your interactions, can often be the difference between winning and losing, so the attitude and behaviour of the staff is hugely important.
People will not always remember what you said. People will not always remember what you did, but what they will do is, always remember how it made them feel. So, think about professional services, the clue is in the title ‘services’. It's a lot about service selling.
The firms that do well at this tend to have a better client service ethic as part of the culture of the organisation and that starts at the top, so why don't you get round a table with your key stakeholders and see what you can do to make your client service more impressive. Study your client journey from start to finish and highlight where you can make improvements. Every little counts.
As ever, if you need help to find the answers, be sure to get in touch.