Lesson #1 - Turning around a hostile customer

“You are just a bunch of experts with no domain knowledge in MY field.” How do you respond to this personal attack from a person you want as a customer? When you have prepared hard for the presentation. When you really want the account. When he is technically right.

Fresh on the job, I was to build and lead an “Embedded Software” practice from scratch in my previous company. The challenge wasn’t only that the space was new to us but also that the field is so specialized that customers expect you to have a strong track record. After all, they are entrusting you with the development of a core area of their products. “Tough customers” was the norm, arrogant ones weren’t unheard of. Over the last 12 years, I have learnt a few ways to diffuse such tricky situations, the first of which came very early on.

In my first month at the job I just mentioned, I had an opportunity to pitch to one of the top chip-makers in Silicon Valley, say Company B. A nice presentation in tow, we were pretty confident. It highlighted our capabilities. We were willing to make investments as per B’s requirements. We also offered a couple of free proof of concept (POC) projects.

Not that I would be complacent later in life, but since it was my first prospective customer at this new job, I ensured that we got our story right. I had it reviewed internally, and of course, went through the presentation multiple times. On the day, my passionate pitch conveyed our zeal to do everything possible to make the relationship a big success. The slight nod from my boss signed, “well done” too. Given our company’s reputation in consulting and our offer of free POC projects, we all thought we are likely to win the deal.

And the lashing began. B’s CTO got up thundering, “You are inexperienced” was followed up with “A bunch of experts who have just come on board telling me that they will build capabilities in MY domain,” an obvious, even if indirect, jibe at my team and me. Ouch.

He even implied that we were out to build our capabilities at his cost clearly seeing us as a threat to his product development!

There was a thick, stunned silence in the room. Most of what he said was true. At the same time, such a sharp reaction caught most of us off-guard. But not my boss.

He was composed as he got up to speak,

“I hear you, Mr CTO. I would also want my potential outsourcing partner to have pre-existing relevant capabilities if I were in your place.

I assure you, we consider your point of view very seriously and are committed to investing in building a long-lasting relationship with you.

What if done, will make you feel comfortable to consider us your potential outsourcing partner?”

And just like that, the tension evaporated and slowly disappeared!

In just a couple of minutes, my boss had achieved multiple things.

He related to the CTO’s situation by going to the other side of the table.

He re-emphasised our serious intent and commitment to make him successful.

He subtly asked the CTO to take a position. By requesting the CTO to spell out what would make him comfortable the CTO HAD to let go his attitude of “you don’t know my domain.” In fact, he had to spell out specific actions that kept us in the discussion. Most unexpectedly the ball was thrown in his court. He would have to define the problem precisely for us. In a way, the CTO also had to give us a soft commitment, that is if you do XYZ, you would be a contender for this deal. Else, open-ended action items allow the customer to keep changing the goalpost.

I don’t remember the exact actions given to us that day. I do remember though, we did not get the deal at the time. However, the CTO definitely became more positive towards us. We stayed in touch, and finally, after a couple of years of regular overtures, we landed the deal from the same CTO!

The lesson I learnt from that day’s situation though is more valuable than having gotten the deal. I have used it over and over. I regularly faced “not invented here” reactions from hardcore product companies in Silicon Valley.

Often times you face such hostile situations in our daily life. And this 3 step formula that worked for in the corporate world, has worked for me in daily life as well -

·       Emphathise with the point of view of the stakeholder on the other side

·       Reiterate our commitment and seriousness

·       Have the stakeholder articulate actionable outcomes