Overwhelming Evidence the Silo Farm Is Real – If You Like Your Job You Need to Figure It Out

Most Are Asleep At the Wheel – Change Is On the Horizon and the Future Involves Less You Unless You Wake Up

Have I Got Your Attention

Yes, it’s a little fear porn but it is also true, there is a major shift in business and if you don’t wake up and develop some sense of self-awareness at least at a professional level the future and your role in it as a valued employee may look very different from the way it looks now.

Just for a moment let’s think about corporations and what drives them, oh yeah, it’s profit. Now let’s think for a moment about our current business environment, hmmm, we have increased costs for overhead which includes the cost of salaries, benefits, company perks, etc., etc. Oh yeah and there’s something else, the emergence of Ai.

If you think for a moment that the corporate lords are not going to exploit this new technology for profit you had better think again.

They can and they will use it to the fullest potential to increase profit because that is what drives them along with a bunch of other dark nefarious agenda items not meant for the scope of this article.

If a corporation can replace a portion of their staff with a server it’s a win, win for them. A server never calls in sick, takes PTO, asks for a raise, quits without notice and so on. It’s a matter of value and ROI.

What is shocking is how unaware human beings are as to where their real value resides. The value in people is in their ability to interface with other people in a meaningful way, a way in which adds value and enriches the whole.

Ai can’t do that, but believe me, under the direction of their human handlers it will try and if people are willing to accept the trade because of convenience then we’ll get what we deserve, but don’t you want better, more than just an emotionless, sterile solution for your every query?

If the answer is yes, then you need to wake the freak up! Every day that goes by that you sit at your desk lost on your devices, your phone, your laptop, your desktop and avoid picking up that phone and reaching out to that rep from a vendor whose company you know could add value to yours if you were to collaborate on opportunities, you’re letting your future slip away.

Or instead, not picking up the phone and making a lunch date to deepen your relationship with a team leader for a company that you also know that could increase your company’s opportunities if you were to collaborate with them as well, these missed opportunities will eventually cease to exist because you’re not seizing them and one day the entire process will be automated with Ai and you will find yourself needing to reinvent your career path.

It is slipping through our collective hands right now because we have allowed ourselves to be siloed from one another, the people that we actually need to make our businesses grow and flourish. Our connectiveness is an illusion perpetrated by the digital age we live in.

We are increasingly isolated, but it is happening so gradually that most people are unaware. It is the old ‘frog in the boiling pot’ analogy, the water starts off cool, might say it’s even refreshing and the next thing you know you’re boiling.

The solution to this dystopian future is in the mirror, it’s you.

Put down the phone and look straight ahead, that’s it, now say something to the person nearest you, it’s okay they will be confused at first, not understanding why you aren’t looking down at your phone, just smile and they’ll smile back and then do something amazing and unexpected, talk about your plan for the day, your plan for productivity and collaboration.

See that wasn’t so bad, kind of felt nice, didn’t it?

Lost Opportunities for B2B Sales

Now let’s refocus on the current state of B2B sales and the cause of the issues that are roadblocking your success.

Here goes the broken record again, yes, it is the siloed business environment, and it is wreaking havoc on B2B sales and B2B collaboration. The result is smaller percentages of sales and less opportunities, not to mention some very pissed-off clients.

A customer may be touched by multiple departments during the sales process. The sales and marketing departments, product development, customer support, and so on.

Each of these will gather key data about the customers as they work through their particular processes.

If each of these departments are working in isolation and not sharing these insights with one another an accurate and well-rounded view of the customer never comes into focus.

For example, it’s not unusual in B2B sales for a customer to like a product but during the sales process they discover the need for a small tweak to make the product fit their unique team and processes.

They discuss this at great length with the salesperson then get handed off to the closer and no mention of the issue has been made to the closing department.

The client now has to go through the painful process of explaining the issue all over again and this time having even less confidence the issue will be resolved. This is where the tide turns, and a customer can go from being impressed with your company and your product to wanting to walk out the door.

This happens all too often in today’s siloed business environment and for some businesses it may only take a few of these bad customer experiences to severely damage your company and put you out of business.

Or, at least, get someone fired for the lack of collaboration leading to poor customer care. This is a cultural issue that can be corrected with the ‘Solution for the Silo Farm’.

Cross-Selling Another Often-Missed Opportunity

For every product or service created there are at least four related products or services that may be useful to a customer as well, but because of the lack of cross-collaboration within departments and between related businesses these opportunities are almost always missed.

The shocking part is that many professionals are aware of the missed opportunities but are just too lazy (was that harsh, let me clean that up), lack the motivation to close those gaps and make it happen.

The Example from H**L

For example, in the industry I am part of commercial construction, we work with clients all the time that have gone through the siloed process of arranging financing, procuring a property, engaging a design firm and then finally at last coming to a general contractor for pricing.

Words cannot express how disjointed and inefficient such progression through these steps is, but I’ll try.

First the client goes to their money guy, “So how much do you want to borrow?” snaps the lender to the wide-eyed investor. “I’m not sure but I have an idea of what I want to build.”, (hint, hint, insight). The money guy responds, “Well that’s great, first let’s see what the max is you qualify for.”

From here the client starts looking for property, he has a number in mind based on his maximum amount he qualifies to borrow but no idea how that number jives with the space he needs, the cost of preparing the space for occupancy, or the cost of design and permitting.

Already you can see the client being encouraged to chase his tail as each entity is only concerned with what they can extract from the potential client.

So now the client is with the commercial agent, and they are looking at properties. The client finds one that seems right, so the agent encourages the client to secure the property by making an offer.

The client feels pressure at this point, not necessarily from the agent, but because he doesn’t have all the information to make a good decision.

He knows he needs a design team, and he knows the work to prepare the space will require a contractor and he doesn’t have any idea how much that will cost.

The Wye In The Road

Here is where the client comes to the wye in the road, most probably do nothing at this point and the “opportunity” is lost for the agent and the client, a small percentage will move on the property and hope for the best. If it works out it is usually with mediocre results.

Are the missed opportunities here coming into focus yet? So many opportunities for cross-collaboration to close the deal but nine times out of ten, nothing. And I’m not done yet.

For the small percentage that move forward, without necessary information mind you, the next step they usually take is to find someone to draw them a plan, enter the design team.

Now again, up to this point the client has spent some money and is no closer to realizing their dream than before the process was started. “Why”, you ask? Because they still have no idea what the real cost will be to build what they need.

The client asks for a referral to an architect and the design phase begins. The client sits with the architect, their concept is relayed, and drawing commences.

Long story short the client receives this beautiful set of plans, pays the architect and now, at last they are posed with the selection process for a builder.

It would not be out of the realm of possibility that the design occurred without serious consideration of a budget other than the client’s supposed max capacity of borrowed funds.

And it is also quite common that the design was completed without any real-world costing input from a reputable builder. Yeah, you guessed it, what a mess!

At this point you have a client that has a verbal agreement of ability to borrow funds from a lender, a signed lease for a space that cannot be used until it is remodeled, a set of plans that likely represent a build out that will not make the max budget of the client and still no input from the people that will actually build the “thing”.

Here’s how it usually ends, the bids come in and they are way over the budget, the architect offers redesign and value engineering at additional cost of course and the client ends up with a project that they are not happy with because they couldn’t build the design they paid for and they had to come out of pocket to get the bank to loan them the lion’s share of the funds needed to complete the space. All this while the client’s business is on hold.

Wakey Wakey

If you are reading this and you are a professional in one of these disciplines and if you think with the emergence of Ai and automation that there’s not going to be a tech guru out there that isn’t going to build a commercial industry (lending, real estate, design and building), concierge program that can consolidate and perform all these functions seamlessly, you’re diluted and sleeping soundly, wake the freak up!

The only way to thwart this is to learn how to cross-collaborate and cross-sell services with related vendors in your industry. Otherwise, many of you will be replaced, just a fact and a matter of time.

Now some will say, “We already do that, you just explained how.” And therein lies the problem, if you think what I described was a great or even good customer experience then you deserve to be replaced!

As a builder we hear from clients that have gone through this disjointed, expensive and utterly disappointing trek and we have to deal with the collateral damage. Clients that are not happy already because of what they have been through before we ever meet them.

It doesn’t seem personal to each person along the way, selling their goods, but to the client it is very personal, and this is why most never return to the people they did business with during the transaction. The bad taste in their mouth lingers.

I Could Go On But I Think You Get The Point

There is so much more here to unpack but the article is getting long so I’ll leave it here.

The main takeaway is we as an industry have to take better care of the client and offer better value from the outset, this happens when businesses get out of their silos and collaborate.

This will get fleshed out more in my coming book ‘Solution for the Silo Farm’ (working title, feel free to make suggestions).

By the way if you are finding value in these articles please like and subscribe or follow and share this article so I can continue to build this audience and help improve our industry through dialogue and learning.

I appreciate every read and acknowledge that I can come across as provocative at times but believe me it is one hundred percent intended with a view to moving people off their stump to action or enter the conversation at the least.

Thanks again for reading.