Learning How Far Personalizing Got Me as a Salesman
I had learned to personalize well before I was selling concrete colorant and fixing competitor’s admixture machines. The realization that the power of personalizing came when I stumbled on to my first outside sales position selling pipes and valves. This first sales job sparked the inception of my management style which I use today.
For the last 3 years I had been working for this company calling on contractors and municipalities. We supplied pipe, valves, fire hydrants, manhole covers and other exciting utility products. My wife refused to let me drive because I was constantly looking at hydrants and manhole covers as we traveled. My observations would end when she’d scream at me as I started driving off the side of the road. I was a geek about the job and I loved it.
I was good at selling to these municipalities. Being one step ahead of my competitors and being prepared was critical since there truly was a finite number of cities and underground contractors to call on. Some of these municipality managers had been dealing with the same salesman for ten or twenty years. Being somewhere close to 30 years old I was still a pup to a lot of these grizzled guys and I wasn’t taken very seriously at first.
I would drive to each city’s municipal water and sewer department whether I had an appointment or not. Appointments were rare since these guys were always out and usually taking care of emergency water line breaks or something else deserving immediate attention. I remember one day very clearly when I arrived at one particular water department.
I recognized my competition's car when I pulled up. That didn’t deter me and I didn’t give a damn if I was interrupting his sales call. This water superintendent had been very elusive plus I knew that my competitor, who was now inside, had been doing business with this man for years. I walked in and saw the salesman jotting some orders down.
“He’s not here.” He didn’t want to lose his perceived edge as he continued to lecture me. “You got a lot to learn you gotta earn your place.” Now he looks at me to drive his silly point home. “Or in this case LEARN your place.”
“I’ve known this guy for 18 years. I got his home phone number and even remind him when his wedding anniversary is coming close. Whenever he needs anything he calls me any time of the day. I’m afraid you’re wasting your time.” I remember I wasn’t even pissed. Now I was just determined. Bullies are good at personalizing their message. But I don’t respond well to bullies.
I remember sitting in my truck wondering how I would horn in on this old boy relationship. My sales manager had no luck getting any business from this superintendent for years and didn’t expect me to get very far. Obviously I haven’t known this superintendent for 18 years and there was no way I was going to work my way into a relationship with him by reminding him of his anniversary every year. If I was to finally introduce myself and force a business card in his hand he’d just smile and pick his teeth with that small piece of card stock emblazoned with my name and number.
Observing Will Help You Personalize
That AHA! moment sat me right up in bed that night. To say it was a revelation in the way I approached municipal sales is an understatement worth publishing. It was my first real look into what personalizing something could do. This revelation had the potential to help me make deeper observations of my potential clients.
The revelation was simple. I could beat the water superintendent's call to my competition because I had his number. Actually I had his frequency number that was programmed into my radio scanner.
Ham radio was my hobby. As nerdy as that was I loved it. I loved listening to pilots, police, and fire departments. Occasionally, before everything went digital, an analog cell phone conversation would come through the speakers. The other chatter I would pick up would be municipal workers.
The next morning I began programming the frequencies of all the water and sewer departments into my scanner. With the scanner permanently installed in my work truck I stocked some of the basic water line repair components: clamps, saddles, taps and other pieces and parts to fit this municipality’s current specification. I was off to the races.
Surprisingly it wasn’t long before I heard the water superintendent report a water main break outside of town. They were digging it up to survey the damage and I could tell that they were worried they didn’t have the parts in stock to fix the damage. By the time I arrived at the break they were just starting to shore up the hole they dug. The superintendent saw my truck. I thought he was coming over to tell me to clear the area. He was soaked to the bone. Water line break never happen when it’s 78 degrees and it was a bitterly cold day.
“You need some coffee, chief?” That’s as “old boy network” as I dared to sound.
“I need a clamp and I don’t have one at the shop long enough.” He said. “You got a 6” old iron O.D. size that’d be about 24” long?”
“I got a Smith-Blair in the diameter that should work but it’s 30 inches long.” I told him. That got his attention. “How long before you can bring me one? Toledo’s a little bit of a haul from here.” I was already out of the truck. I pulled this 50 pound stainless steel clamp from the bed. At least this thing wouldn’t be clanging around the back of my truck anymore. I walked it right over to the hole and made sure I got wet bringing over the prize.
It was much easier walking into that water superintendent’s office soon after that. When he introduced me to other people either at the shop or at the waterworks convention every year I was always the “Clamp Man”. I always took that as a compliment.
Personalization? Sounds more Like Planning Ahead
Probably so. Lots of people think ahead and prepare accordingly. I could have continued to call and make appointments with that purchasing agent and that water superintendent maybe getting some business at some point or no business at all. After all, that’s thinking ahead but it’s not getting very far. Personalization is modification. It’s coming up with a custom solution to a stock problem. And I was soon to discover it applied to just more than selling products to somebody.
Making it Personal in Management
It was by accident I stumbled upon the fact that this would transfer to my new life as a call center Operations Manager. Custom solutions to a stock problem works with people too but you need to do a few things first:
I was a brand new manager with a lot of misunderstood ideas about how to be an effective leader. I handled all issues with the same canned responses. I learned in a hurry this did not work. One incident involved an employee that could not lower her call times on the phone. The agent's Supervisor was attempting to correct this issue through "coaching". It was not coaching but simply giving them a goal with no support. The agent's Supervisor was asking me for help.
"This person hasn't improved their call times in weeks it's like they don't even remember what I told them to do." the Supervisor said. I looked at her coaching notes on the agent - basically notes trending the progress of an employee's metrics.
This scenario was becoming far too common with my agents and my Supervisors were becoming very frustrated with the lack of results. My initial direction was to tell them to trend the metrics such as average handle time, not ready, and other key performance indicators relative to our business. If they don't show an improvement trend write 'em up.
This was coming to bite me in the rear end very quickly. I recognized this agent as someone who was really trying her best and right then I realized that I was failing my Supervisor and the Supervisor was failing her.
"Let's sit on this for a few days." I told the Supervisor. I needed to re-think this whole coaching and feedback process and I was hoping it wasn't too late.
Not Reinventing The Wheel (or Radio Scanner)
Over the next few days I was giving some serious thought about my management style. I wasn't going to give myself a pass on this since it was my first real management job. Maybe there was something so obvious and so close that I was missing it.
"Don't over-think this."
"Stick with what you already know."
"Amend it and apply that knowledge."
"Evaluate the results and scrap or amend as needed."
How do I transition this personalization technique from sales to management? I was personalizing the wrong way since becoming an Operations Manager. My walking around management style was a turn off to some of my agents and supervisors. What I thought worked out on the road that got my foot in the door of hostile prospects would work in here.
It will work I was just not doing it correctly. I evaluated the situation and realized I was on the right track I was just not executing correctly. Time to change the game.
Drawing the Personalization Parallel between Sales and Management Scenarios
This poor agent wasn't making her stats for the same reason I wasn't able to have any early success seeing that water superintendent. As I started piecing this together the comparisons between sales/management came easily:
- My sales manager coaching me on this particular water superintendent:
- I don't know how you're going to get in to see that municipality. I've been trying for years all I can recommend is that you keep trying. We should settle for getting small things at first - not worry about being their primary supplier. Just start there.
- My Supervisor coaching their agent on improving their metrics:
- I don't know how you're going to get your handle time down quickly. I've been telling you for a few months to concentrate on getting it down even just a little bit. Keep trying.
"It's not the radio scanner that got you in the door it's what you decided to do with it. That water superintendent needed something you had and you were able to fill that need more quickly than your competition." I can hear the squeak of the hamster wheel in my brain. Waiting for this to come together. Looking for a solution.
"Whether that was that pipe repair clamp you had, a competitor's broken colorant machine you could fix for a potential customer, or that conversation you struck up with the loading dock guy it was all because you were being observant. Observe until you find a way to personalize". I thought.
What are the tools I have as a manger that will help me and my supervisors personalize not something we want to sell but something we want to improve? It was time to get my Supervisor and try a few ideas that might help us observe her agent.
"Let's listen to some of her customer calls." I asked the Supervisor the next day. " I will take my notes for coaching purposes." I threw a twist into the monitoring process. "I'm going to remote monitor in real time from a cubicle and watch the agent as they take that particular call. You will listen to the recorded version later and then we'll compare notes." I think the Supervisor was more intrigued by me listening to calls.
It was very enlightening. The agent was standing and chatting to her neighbors while I was waiting for a random call to patch into. She finally took one call that I decided to monitor. Technically the call was fine but she was muting the phone often (probably because she was told get her phone hold times down) and speaking with the agents around her. I made my notes and met with the agent's Supervisor the next day.
The Supervisor was confused. "I listened to the call and it was okay but there were long pauses that made this call at least one minute longer than it should have been."
"Let's go have a coaching session with her now." I instructed the Supervisor. "I have some ideas we can try."
Don't Talk About Work For The First Five to Ten Minutes of the Coaching Session
I led the coaching session with the agent. She seemed worried I was involved thinking she was in some kind of trouble. The first thing I did was ask her how she was doing. In fact the first 5 minutes of our coaching session was talking about everything except work. Just in those five minutes I learned quite a bit about her situation. Student, new mom, sole provider and also worked a second job. That surprised the Supervisor since she had been on her team for a while.
I immediately had 2 or 3 different reactions to the first 5 minutes of our session. Reactions that would help me personalize our session and understand any roadblocks. This personalization led right into the genuine praise I had for everything she was doing correctly.
"It's tough doing all of those things - school, work and family all by yourself. I worked with a girl a long time ago when I had one of my first jobs who was doing that." I said. "We worked in the paint department and I remember asking her one day how she juggled all of these responsibilities. She told me she saw this job as an escape from school and home because it was the only place she had no drama."
"She could do her homework during lunch uninterrupted." I continued. "She could have adult conversations here and she also saw this job as a springboard to other positions in the company once she graduated college". Both the Supervisor and agent were listening a little more. We like stories even if they're not all that unusual just as long as we can relate. We then transitioned into her metrics.
We found a common denominator between us. If we didn't get her attention or we couldn't establish any "buy in" then no matter how personal it was it means nothing. It's the part of the equation that takes the most time and practice to figure out.
I reminded her of what she was doing very well. "You've got that covered as far as I can see you're doing a phenomenal job getting here well before your shift starts. You call quality is very good too. I can tell you're trying very hard here that's why we want to know what we can do to make this job easier." That praise was from the heart.
"You've only got a few things to improve on and one of those is your call times." I said. "I notice you are speaking with the agents around you sometimes when you're on a call." I am making sure this doesn't sound like an accusation. This is news to the Supervisor gauging the look on her face. But I see the light bulb over the Supervisor's head because she now realizes she has a new observational technique.
Share Your Personal Experience as it Relates to the Issue at Hand
I asked the agent to remember a time when she was distracted in school or on the job. Most people struggle coming up with specific examples on the spot so I volunteered my story. It was about a guy I worked with - another salesman at the time - that continued to abuse the company's Nextel two way radio while I was on the road. I told her about one instance I was making a sales call to a potential big customer when he came across my Nextel phone and screamed a very questionable string of colorful language which was heard by the entire office. I was embarrassed and very upset. That Nextel two way outburst cost me a lot of business.
After the initial shock the agent and the Supervisor smiled as I started laughing about the incident. Suddenly they both had similar stories where a coworker or classmate put them in a similar situation.
"Have you ever been on the phone when somebody close to you says something embarrassing that might have been heard by the party on the other end of your line?" I asked. My Supervisor saw where I was going with this which was great. The agent acknowledged she had experienced that.
"I'm sure that when you're chatting with your coworkers on the floor you're not saying anything rude like my salesman buddy did to me." I assured her. "But it's hard enough to hear on the floor sometimes and it sounds unprofessional when our customers hear a lot of personal talk between agents. I think just by you limiting your floor conversations to when there's phone idle time will really lower your talk time dramatically and quickly."
This personalization helped this agent buy in to the coaching and feedback we just administered. It will stick because now every time she sees me walking the floor she'll remember me as the Nextel guy. It will also reinforce the fact that we did discuss not being chatty with her buddies around her and how unprofessional background talk is to our customers.
My sales background helped shorten my learning curve with this technique. I took the long way around in this blog entry to illustrate how I got from point A to point B and how I applied personalization to my management style It's important to show that no matter what kind of experience you have you've got something that will spark your imagination or trigger a memory that you can turn into a personalizing event. Whether it helps you sell a water pipe repair clamp or help an employee improve a key performance metric it's the same process. Personalization makes messages stick.
Take some time as a manager to hone the listening skills required to formulate your own personalization techniques. You're going to make mistakes and act on some bad theories but you need to keep trying. If you need help ask somebody. You can even ask me - the Nextel Guy...or the Clamp Guy. I'll answer to either one.
HOLD THEIR ATTENTION!
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