Culture of Service- 4

You want to create a culture of service. You want to think about customers first. 

But you have a financial targets..!

Out goes the talk about customers and it all becomes about hitting the number. 

This is the danger zone. Because if all you talk about is numbers, you're going to wind up with a team who treats the customers and each other like a transaction. 

When you start treating your customers like a number, they return the favor

They commoditize you and that makes it harder for you to hit your numbers. Yes, you still need to talk about financial targets, but the two are not mutually exclusive. 

Your financial goals and having a positive impact on your customers depend on each other. So use the objective, customer impact, objective method to communicate financial objectives to your team, and that'll keep you from losing your emphasis on the customer. Here's how it works. 

Start by sharing the company's objectives with the team. Make it clear there are financial goals, and you're going to be holding people accountable for those metrics. Then help your people see the connection between hitting your financial goals and having a positive impact on customers. Helping your team understand that connection is one of the most important things you can do as a leader. So make it crystal clear, a greater positive impacts on clients is what leads to more revenue. And finally, come full circle and tie that story back to your financial objectives. Got it? 

So let's pull it all together and see how it works. 

Imagine you run a sales team that sells pharmaceuticals for diabetic patients. And your team needs to produce Rs 50 Cr of revenue by the end of the year.

Now comes the task. Your average revenue per month is 3 Crs per month or 36 Crs annually..!

So let's frame it using the three-part formula. You could say to your team, we have a very aggressive revenue goal this year, Rs 50 Crs, and I want to explain to you what this means. 

You know, last week we had a hospital come to us because they couldn't find the companies who can directly bill to the hospitals & eliminate mediators.

The business was suffering as the medicine cost was high and the owner was almost in tears, she was so frustrated. So we set her up with our e-distribution system and tech support. Her patients are now getting medicines at affordable costs & she's thrilled. She spends less time on these headaches and more time with her patients, which is what she loves to do. So team, if we can find and help 500 more hospitals just like that, team, we will make a big difference. Helping 500 hospitals will ensure we hit our number of Rs 50 Crs this year. 

But what do you do when your team is behind on a number? 

Well, in that situation you want to follow the same formula, objective, customer impact, objective, and you want to add in a fourth part and that's consequences. Now, you don't want to say, you all are going to be fired or else. Instead, say something like this, if we aren't profitable, we can't continue to help our customers. Or, if we don't meet these targets, we aren't delivering on our purpose, and our customers are going to suffer. The call to deliver needs to be in service of impact, not in service of self or internal metrics. 

Communicating your financial goals and your results in this way will deepen the mental connection between customer impact and financial performance. And the deeper that connection becomes, the more your team will dive into the culture of service.

Do share your thoughts & Comments..!

happy learning..!