The importance of being earnest

Last month, a bunch of us were subject to a presentation by a potential partner, who was trying to sell us their offering – a new service concept. Their concept was one that is probably exciting and new to some organizations, but happens to be a best practice within our business group. It is something that we had adopted and built on for a while now, something that, over a period of a few years, has received abundant press coverage.

If the partner had taken the trouble to just google about our group in this context, she would have found this out. And if she had done that, she would have made a very powerful presentation highlighting the delta, the value of her offering over our current state, and Bingo! A sale would have been made.

Walking in cold on the organization’s background, she also assumed the audience were a backward bunch who lived in the stone ages. She started educating us on the basics of a concept that is about 8 years old at least, and no one with a remote link to telecom or IT could have missed it, unless one was Rip Van Winkle! She didn’t even ask us before plunging into the ‘education’. She just started by saying ‘let me help you understand what XXXX is……’

So, if you have been in our shoes, you would have realised how ‘condescending’ that can seem. She went on to extol the virtues of what she was selling. Net result was a bored and slightly miffed audience, whose body language was revealing enough, but she was unfortunately oblivious to.

So I asked myself why, when I want to make a sale, would I not take the trouble of ensuring adequate homework and research? Why would I assume a bunch of ‘duh’ audience?

Homework on the audience – after all, it is always, as the clichéd saying goes, ‘people buying from people’, not some inanimate entity which makes the purchase decision.

Homework on the organization – it is natural for the organization, again represented by these people, to want to see how to take the next step forward, and to ignore any pitch that is starting from ground zero, and definitely doesn’t strike a chord!

Homework, research, background study, call it what you will, is all so easy today – the net offers access to so much information, that a smart search of a couple of hours would have given enough insights to tailor the pitch and make it appealing!

The first thing I was taught in selling was to research your audience to death. In my early days of selling hotel conference rooms and banquets, I did not have the luxury of information at my finger tips access through the internet. I had to find contacts who could share some insights.

This lady is unfortunately not an outlier. I find her more the norm. Even candidates, who want you to hire them, walk in absolutely clueless about the organization they want to join.

So where is the gap? Is it that we don’t value what is so obvious and easy to do? Is it not ‘cool’ to be earnest anymore? Earnest enough to research and tailor pitches to clients and potential employers?

And so I remind myself ‘Usha, check what Mr X wants to achieve this year, find out what his growth plans are, before you start selling him HIS transformation agenda J