Two days ago, I met with the CEO of a small company somewhere nearby Paris, France. This 5-years old company does GSM interface for sensors and stuff like power or gas consumption meters. I will tell you more later on this company and its patented technology, which allow the transmission of SMS messages (alarms and/or remote data measurements) in explosive environments.
For the time being, I just wanted to highlight this : on the 2-hours meeting, I had less than 20% of the air time. I let the CEO speak, on purpose : I was there to sell something (consulting services). And it worked quite well, provided that I achieved my goal : to send a proposal.
No special trick here, just the application of * standard * technics for customer interviews. Although I am doing sales since more than 15 years now, I have to admit one thing : I have learned a lot with HP/Agilent Technologies. Especially during the Musketeers days - see the recent post here.
Here are the five steps to follow for an effective customer interview, based on the workshop delivered by Deltanet Consultants : Briefing, Ingroup Formation, Information Gathering, Interview Summary, Debriefing.
It works perfectly well, even when you go alone (then you'll play the all-in-one Interviewer, Note Recorder, and Time Keeper ;-)
• Briefing : Religiously devote 30 to 60 minutes for a briefing before every interview. Attendance should be mandatory for anyone from your company who will be in the interview. The objective is to review what is known about this customer and the interview subjects, and to align the minds of the interview team members just prior to the actual interview.
• Ingroup Formation At First Physical Contact : Begin to build the ingroup at the first point of physical contact. For example, when driving in to the customer’s facility, capture observations such as the designation of parking places, location of visitor parking, ease of finding the receptionist, feelings generated by the appearance of the facility, etc. These kinds of observations will form a sense of the style of the company. They will give the team members an inventory of items to use to form the ingroup.
• Information Gathering : This is the meat of the meeting. The operative word is communicate. Use your skills and processes to maximize communication.
• Interview Summary : Summarize the mutual benefits from this meeting for the customer and the team. It’s the first part of the last step in the effective communications process. It’s where both the team and the customer representatives bubble up the important issues, clarify, amplify, and record a summary of the information exchanged during the interview.
• Debriefing : This is the summary for the benefit of the team. It’s the last part of the last step in the effective communications process. It’s where the team reinforces the important issues, clarifies, amplifies, and finishes the record of the information exchanged during the interview. The debriefing notes should be integrated into the record for the interview, but clearly differentiated from the verbatims taken during the interview.
For more details, please contact Hal Stitt at Deltanet !
