From Bricks to Clicks & Digital Relationships

By Brian Kennett, September, 2020

As I sit here today on my 5th or 6th virtual client meeting experience of the day, questions are spinning round in my head;

“Is my next meeting a Skype, Webex, TEAMS, Zoom, or Workplace.”

“Does that platform auto-mute me, and turn on the camera when I join or not?”

“Could I get away with doing the call from the pub?”

“Will this t-shirt suffice for this client contact, or should I turn off the camera?”

“Should I wear a business shirt with my shorts and ensure the camera only shows me shoulders up?”

“Should I get one of the kids to walk in on purpose to give me a ‘human’ side?”

“Will, I ever get to meet this client contact face to face?”

And so on.

The latter question is the one that really does stand out for me though. In these days of Covid-19 it has created a necessity for me to have digital-only relationships with my clients.

Clients that I have never met, and surely will not be meeting for some time to come sadly. 7 months into my new job as Global Account Director of three large global enterprises I have only met 3 people in person. Yes, three. Three actual pressing the flesh meetings within my clients that have over 500,000 employees globally. Three!

I have moved from relationships made in bricks to relationships made through clicks.

But isn’t selling about meeting people and building a relationship of trust and empathy?

“People buy from people.” Right?

So how do we do that now digitally?

I wonder if someone is creating Tinder 4 Business? Now there’s an idea. “I don’t like the look of this sales guy so swipe left…” 

 According to Wikipedia; “Social selling is the process of developing relationships as part of the sales process. Today this often takes place via social networks such as LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest, but can take place either online or offline. Examples of social selling techniques include sharing relevant content, interacting directly with potential buyers and customers, personal branding, and social listening.”

Social Selling is not new. In fact, LinkedIn was launched back in May of 2003, so nearly 17 years ‘old’ now. But back then it was very much a 'selling yourself platform' to attract recruiters. Today it becomes an essential part of the digital briefcase. Well, at least it has for me.

I wanted to share some of the things I have been doing in this net-new sales world of virtual, video and social. From bricks to clicks & digital relationships.

Research, Research, Research…

I don’t think we have a God-given right as sales to engage a client without having researched them, their company, their role, their geography and so on. Why would I engage a sales guy if he or she had no context or reason to engage me. If it is to ram generic product down my throat I think I’ll give it a miss. Make some effort. Effort that I guarantee will be respected by the target client. It shows a desire to know them better and why I have something of value to them. It enables me to sell suggestively with my own opinion and ideas.

There are so many data sources available today in the public domain from setting up basic Google alerts, LinkedIN & Navigator, to reading the client company report & accounts. It’s a must for me. It is also a continuous cycle as things constantly change. Who’d have guessed 2020 in 2019. But treat that as a positive as constant change is also a constant refresh of reasons to call. You have no excuse not to research.

As a Global Account Director with a number of team members dotted across the planet I have created the concept of Account Workbooks which get shared in a global TEAMS site for all to use to their benefit. A single moment of truth, but truths that are constantly updated. Reasons to call. Global relationships to leverage and anecdotally reference. Wins and use cases, but also losses with why and what remedial action has been taken to not lose the next.

All my team are encouraged to use and contribute, and feedback because then we get the local nuance of a country, market or BU and their client's voice.

LinkedIN & Sales Navigator

Top-Tips;

·     Create your personal brand but please make sure no spelling mistakes of things like job title (you will be surprised how many times I see that);

·     The difference with LinkedIN and a cold-call email is that email is likely being ‘filtered’ by the Admin Assistant of the Exec. LinkedIN is usually set up with the client personal email so straight to them with no gatekeeper;

·     If a client accepts your invitation to connect you now know they are on-line so send them a personal message immediately. That will flash up on their personal email, again no gatekeeper;

·     Get your company banners up in your LinkedIN profile as that is free digital advertising real-estate;

·     Hey it’s social but you still need to be relevant to increase your hit rate conversions, never just push the button to connect and allow the LinkedIN auto-fill to be your message. Would you like that on a birthday card? So why think a client will like no effort to personalise. Be punchy and relevant. Mention mutual connections, shared groups, schools etc. anything and everything to enhance the chance of acceptance by having some context;

·     Have a voice, post some insights, join groups that your customers are in, follow contextual people, connect to your colleagues and partners – the more connections the more likely you are that one-step from a target client, and hey why not write a blog.

Relationship Quality (RQ)

This is a new concept I have created to monitor the quality of the relationship over time. It defines the criticality of the contact, your target RQ for that contact, your RQ month by month, frequency of contact, circles of influence, relationship owner, contextual two-minute message and the like.

I have found that most of the major account selling ‘practices’ like Miller Heiman, MASS etc. focus so much at the client – role, position in the buying cycle, objectives, the field of play etc…

I don’t see a great deal about our relationship quality with the customer. Just fill in a box and state we know their buying cycle position. I use RQ to create my target list of who, how, by whom, two minute-messaging, and when before I do any LinkedIN reach-outs – yep, it’s research phase but an in-life tool thereafter.

In this day and age of complex selling, there are on average 10-14 buyers & influencers in a decision. You can’t cover them all. In fact, I recommend you pair off your team to the client team. Have solution architects with solution architects, marketing with marketing, CFO with CFO etc.

I like to think of the Global Account Management model in the shape of an hourglass. The GAM is in the middle and he or she is co-ordinating all the relationships that the client organisation (the top of the hourglass) has with my organisation (the bottom of the hourglass). They could be global/regional, multi-faceted, role oriented, project-bound, specialist enabled, industry segment bias – the list goes on.

You don’t have to own all the relationships!

You should orchestrate, introduce, manage and constantly feed the context.

Through an RQ plan, you can manage, monitor and review.

You can create an RQ plan for an Enterprise, BU, Country, and even opportunity.

Detractors have an RQ too

Don’t ignore them or file them away in the too hard to deal with box.

The RQ concept focuses on detractors, not just your BFF clients that you see 10 times a week because you like each other. If someone is a detractor it could be that they just don’t like you. I personally believe you should give more attention to the detractor and RQ allows you to reflect and track that.

So get over it, they just don’t like you. But someone in your circle of influence, company or partner ecosystem may get on well with them or already know them. They could own the relationship on your behalf. I am now one-step from that client, feeding my trusted companion/colleague with messaging to win over that relationship. One-step away, but absolutely very much one-step closer.

 Executive Discussion Documents - AKA Person-Based Marketing

If you have done your research why not be a suggestive salesperson in this digital world.

It’s Account-Based Marketing (ABM) on steroids, but worth the effort. This is Person-Based Marketing.

Executive Discussion Documents are another concept I came up with in the same vein as RQ Planning. Borne from frustrations of watching sales guys whack up 60 slides for an hour meeting with a client and then panic with 10 minutes to go still having 40 slides to present and speed up and try and cram in a Q&A. Skipping through slides and content. If you could skip it why have it in there in the first place? A lot of the content is just fluff and so generic and maybe not even of any relevance.

When I was working as a Ventures Visionary & Start-Up Advisory Board Member in Telstra I had a constantly changing portfolio to support, as is the very nature of VC and start-ups. None of our marketing collateral was fit for purpose. Again it was all so generic. Nothing was to the industry or role of the target client. I wanted to turn the customer engagement approach on its head.

An Executive Discussion Document is written from scratch and potentially to the one client contact you are targeting in the Enterprise. Research is king to understand enough for you to create content you think will be of relevance and interest.

I created a document once for a client exploring the merit for them to target mass-financial inclusion in emerging markets in South East Asia, and how they could use their big-data solutions to augment telco data to create new forms of credit-checking for the unbanked and uninsured. To do that they would need to co-create with partners, including my company of course.

It was super suggestive, but they had referenced in their report & accounts they were launching a new business in Asia that was moving them from pure-play bureau to data analytics and decision-making. What better reason for targeting the CEO of APAC with an idea aligned to that strategy.

The Executive Discussion Document approach will enable you to share all your content prior to the meeting. You have set the agenda to your agenda. You can incorporate your product messaging subtly within the document. When you meet you discuss the content of the document (hence the name) usually in alignment to the client strategy/business. Now you have reversed the usual approach of 60 slides in an hour in a present to fashion with no conversation, to no slides and an hour of business-led conversation.

Executive Engagements

I am also a firm believer in Executive engagement and not just for ‘kissing babies’ and ‘cutting ribbons’ relationships. These can still be incredibly impactful even during digital-only. But they have to be action-oriented, and two-way action-oriented with an agreed frequency of future engagement and cadence.

In fact only last week I held a CEO to CEO session through TEAMs with my client to amazing impact and immediate relationship development. The client CEO had 2 of his Exec team, and my CEO had two of his Exec team too. How long would it normally take to facilitate that face to face and in Japan?

We had a meeting with the CEO of my client organisation with him sat in his condo in Japan.

Regular Exec engagement was agreed as an action, and much more frequent scheduling than physically face to face could ever allow. This original CEO reach out started through LinkedIN. I was contextual to him because I researched his new promotion to the CEO and had a high-level view of his initial strategic intent from a press announcement I got from Google alerts. In my LinkedIN outreach, I used 250 characters to be of interest to him. Part of my RQ plan was to have my CEO as Exec sponsor and contextual messaging was created to encourage that. All this was done before making that 1st click in LinkedIN.

What makes this quite amazing is that my client is Japanese. Usually culturally not so embracive of social platforms such as LinkedIN. Also a much more physical formal meeting approach Executives are engaged – where to sit, how low to bow, make sure you use two-handed name-card sharing etc.

The world is changing and adapting.

Executives are all changing and adapting too, no matter what country they are in.

Clicks got me this digital relationship in bricks. Funny that they were the bricks of my client's personal abode for the first meeting.

Video Calling Y/N?

EVERY time please

I have TEAMs with video enablement. So what, I hear you say. Video is critical for today’s need of creating digital relationships. If you get the chance for a video call with a client take it. Put a work shirt on with shorts, brush your hair, comb your beard, put the dog in the garden - but PLEASE take that video call over an audio-only call every day of the week.

Why?

You are likely going to be entering the customer’s house. You are very likely to see pictures and personal items on their walls, you might even meet a family member or hear their dog barking in the background. This personal relationship forming data & insight is GOLD and it would normally take years of relationship development to get anywhere near a client’s abode and family

Potentially 2 LinkedIN pings, an email and an invite and you’re sat in the customer's bedroom. Imagine that happening in 2019. You also still have that ability to have the all-important body language watching. As Desmond Morris’ book of 2003 penned; Body Language: The Hidden Meaning Behind People's Gestures and Expressions

I reiterate. PLEASE take the video call every and any time you can.

In closing…why not Pay it Forward – have a Societal impact too

Many years back I learnt an awful lot from a gentleman called Dr Jeffrey Kaplan when he was a Managing Partner of Ferrazzi Greenlight. They had a program enabling the power of developing, maintaining and expanding personal networks as the source for personal brand value. If you don't know someone, try to be one step away from someone who does and leverage. Many lessons were learnt with Jeff.

This approach can also extend to your personal life and that of those around you.

We’ve all see that film: ‘Pay it Forward’? Well, why not help each other in work and personal life through the relationships we have built up in our career years. I guarantee it will come back and help you to one day.

The planet has had a nasty kicking of late, and that includes everyone in it. People are on furloughs, being made redundant, having job uncertainty and in some instances are just alone because of our friend Covid-19. How about helping someone with an introduction to an opportunity, an introduction to a contact that could help them, do some virtual training, do some virtual mentoring.

We have the tools and digital relationships, so why not?

It could be you one day don’t forget.

Try it, it’s quite humbling and extremely rewarding even if not directly monetized.

Well, we are in sales right…

My name is Brian Kennett and I am a Global Account Director at Vodafone.

Funnily enough, you can create a digital relationship with me @

https://www.dhirubhai.net/in/brian-kennett/