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CHAPTER 1
The Power of Preparation
"Give me six hours to chop down a tree, and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe." — Abraham Lincoln
Arriving at work one morning, I was in an upbeat mood. A strategic customer alignment (CA) meeting with a customer was scheduled for ten o'clock. Everyone was ready, and every detail had been taken care of.
An e-mail marked "Urgent" greeted me. It was from Nathan. I had a bad feeling about it. Nathan was my key attendee, our linchpin subject matter expert. As I opened the e-mail, I prayed, "Please don't cancel. Please don't let me down."
Unfortunately, my fears were confirmed. "Laura, I'm sorry. I can't attend the meeting today. There's an accident on Highway 17. Besides, I'm fighting a nasty head cold. I recommend Sarah as my replacement — she's on cc. If she can't make it, call me at home and I'll help you find an alternate. Nathan."
How disappointing. This client, whom we'll call Ginormo Corporation, was one of our company's largest customers. GC accounted for more than 10 percent of our revenue. The particular division that would be joining us in only an hour's time drove a healthy chunk of that business. They were industry leaders. Therefore, we were eager to align our product road map of Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) with them. (Think customizable logic computer chip.)
We'd heard nothing but radio silence from GC for months, but now they were sending four valuable employees to meet with us: an in-the-trenches engineer, two influential engineering directors, and the chief technology officer. Their strong lineup was hardly an expression of love for us, however. Rather, it was testimony to the fact that our products were critical to their success. The truth was they weren't our biggest fans at that moment. We'd burned them recently with a software update, which, for various reasons, had set their schedule back by weeks, maybe months. The market they served was intensely competitive. Time to market meant everything, and that update had compromised their plans. No, they were not happy with us.
Thankfully, the software issue had been resolved just in time for this meeting. However, wounds were still fresh. It wouldn't be easy to get them to open up, and that was one reason why I needed Nathan. He was great with customers. If anyone could unlock customer information, it was he. For one thing, he brought technical credibility, and nothing keeps engineers talking than an audience that enthusiastically comprehends what they're saying. But there was more to it than mere understanding. When you get engineers around a whiteboard, discussing a problem, you see camaraderie, ad hoc teaming, exploration, creativity, brainstorming, common purpose, head scratching, and inspiration. There's something special about a conversation between people who share an in-depth understanding of a complex topic. Nathan was the kind of colleague who could connect in this manner with just about anyone, no matter their personality type. His knowledge of our products and of the industry as a whole was simultaneously broad and deep. Yep, Nathan was perfect. But Nathan wouldn't be coming.
I should have been in a panic, but I was calm. How could that be?
Short answer: because we'd prepared. We'd developed and carefully implemented an aligning protocol, so I was confident I could draw on a team of competent attendees. Nathan's alternate would bring all the technical credibility that was required. More important, I was confident she would ask skillful questions, build trust with the customer, and demonstrate genuine interest. She'd connect, and in the end, she'd strengthen relationships. How did I know? Because I'd taught her how.
Rewind a few years, however, and the prospect of inviting an alternate to a customer meeting would have been as appealing to me as a round of Russian roulette. Back then, there were only a handful of people whom I felt comfortable putting in front of customers. Even those colleagues could be unpredictable. But an unfamiliar alternate? No way. They might talk too much or ask leading questions. Worst of all, they might attempt to sell the customers on our products, coming off like a sleazy used-car salesperson. I'd seen every cringe-worthy behavior you could imagine.
To be fair, colleagues from engineering, marketing, and other departments usually behaved professionally. It was simply glaringly notable the few times when they goofed. The problem was that I never knew when they were going to derail the conversation. Even the most diplomatic among them, including high-level executives, could make awkward comments or steer the discussion off course. Whether due to outrageous gaffes or peccadilloes, each misstep added up over the course of a meeting. The consequences were consistent: the customer would stop talking, and we'd come away with little useful information.
So why did we continue? Why did we keep hosting meetings? Because sometimes magic happened — we'd connect. Everyone could feel it. The conversation would carry forward on its own as excitement built. Suddenly, the customer would jump up, grab a dry erase marker, and brainstorm ideas on the whiteboard. Thus inspired, we were in flow. Pencils scratched over engineering notepads, and laptop keys clicked. We happily recorded outpourings of customer insights, ideas, and visions.
Out of that magic came revelations that we might never have encountered. A deep understanding emerged of what the customer was truly trying to do and why. We learned what was getting in their way and explored how we might help them overcome such obstacles. We heard stories, not just data points. We understood the context, relative importance, and reasons for each request.
On these occasions, I'd wonder, could we cultivate that magic regularly and consistently? Could we avoid whatever prevented that magic from materializing?
I began observing our behavior in the margins of my notes. After a few customer meetings, the truth emerged: we were winging it.
People were coming to the meetings unprepared. They had skipped premeetings and hadn't read e-mail briefings. They'd show up and steer the conversation according to their own agendas. Otherwise cordial colleagues became argumentative when they didn't hear answers they wanted to hear. I wondered, didn't people know how to behave?
Then I imagined myself in my colleagues' shoes. Like me, they had decisions to make, projects to push forward, and interminable meetings to endure. These meetings took them away from their work. They wanted to make the most of their time, so they'd rapid-fire all their open questions at each customer, whether the topics were relevant or not. It wasn't pretty.
But I was as much to blame as they were. I was dumping them into an impossible position. They were expected to behave well with customers, but I hadn't clarified what specific behaviors were expected. I hadn't confirmed their understanding of the meeting goals, nor whether they knew their specific roles in the meetings. I hadn't provided behavioral tips, such as how to ask skillful questions or how to take useful notes. No, I hadn't set expectations and yet I expected perfect behavior. How naive.
So I took action. First, I educated myself. I sought guidance and found wisdom in books and trainings. I learned how to question and actively listen to customers, using techniques taught by Rory Clark, the creator of Focus $elling. His program trained salespeople to diagnose customer situations prior to prescribing solutions. I borrowed many of his techniques, especially those rooted in active listening, and taught them to my colleagues.
As I developed the training program, I also received valuable feedback from a colleague in the human resources department, the ever insightful Eva Condron, who is currently the senior manager of global talent development at Xilinx, Inc. (our archrival!).
I was eager and ready to go. I developed a training class and invited about fifteen people. Two people showed up. I let the others know that if they wanted to meet with customers, they were required to undergo training. I petitioned the heads of each department to nudge their teams to attend. In the end, nearly everyone I asked took this training. What I found was that while reluctant at first, most of them embraced what they learned. They felt relieved because they finally understood, with absolute clarity, what their roles and responsibilities were. They were gratified to learn exactly what was expected of them and, more important, what was not expected. They developed customer aligning skills and contributed their own ideas for improving customer engagements. I happily incorporated their insights into subsequent training sessions.
Within a year, our meetings had transformed. We spent less time preparing and more time gathering useful information. With success came demand from the sales organization. The field teams had long been wary of putting their customers in front of what they called "loose cannon factory people." With visibility and positive customer chatter about our meetings, the sales teams became more comfortable with bringing customers to us. They increasingly saw these meetings as a means of strengthening relationships with their accounts. For example, the vice president of sales, George Papa, began hearing positive reviews from customers. Recognizing the relationship-building power of these meetings, he encouraged his sales teams to arrange more of them. Before long, we had more requests than we could reasonably schedule.
People naturally formed personal connections with customers in these meetings. Over time, they felt comfortable sending one-off e-mails to close customers to ask their take on new technologies or experiences with current products. When I moved on to a new role, planning "stacked 3-D" products, I was able to tap into a wide network of valuable opinions that helped me form a good understanding of how this technology would best serve our customers. These insights would have been hidden from me if I hadn't attended so many customer alignment meetings.
Attendees from our engineering teams also found value. Whereas in the past, they were reluctant to accept invitations, at some point their attitudes switched and they began requesting invitations. Previously, these meetings were regarded as disruptions to their schedules and a source of annoying action items. After attending the training, they saw value in hearing directly from customers. They came to understand that the objective was not to pick up action items, but to learn customer goals and challenges in an open forum. I witnessed a total transformation. Formerly mute and defensive engineers began asking questions from a place of genuine curiosity. Rather than wringing their hands over their own constraints, they actively strove to learn what the customer was trying to accomplish and why.
As for me? Well, our planning documents transformed. What previously were little more than lists of customer requirements became stories of how various features would be valued by various customers. Second, I gained confidence in what we'd come to call ourselves: the "uncovering team." Dozens of colleagues, across multiple departments, could be called upon at any time to help us in the product planning department to uncover information we needed in order to define products that aligned with customer plans. We became a unit, capable of working together to uncover customer information that mattered.
And so we found ourselves in a good place by the time Ginormo Corp was due to visit. And we'd be fine, even without a key subject matter expert.
As I replied to Nathan's e-mail, I was calm and relaxed. Sarah would be up to the task. She'd bring all the technical credibility we needed. More important, I was confident she would ask skillful questions, build trust with the customer, and demonstrate genuine interest. She'd connect and strengthen our relationships.
You see, learning customer goals and challenges and aligning with customers can be a vital part of determining internal strategy. Gaining reliable knowledge in customer alignment meetings requires planning. Each attendee must be trained to use his or her innate skills in the context of a larger team effort. All players must understand their role within the team and play that role at the right time. This doesn't mean people must alter their personalities. They simply need to adjust some wording when they ask questions, take proper notes, and sharpen their listening skills. All this can be learned, and all this can be taught, as proven through the training protocol I developed.
While this training was developed in the context of the semiconductor industry and many examples derive from that world, the concepts translate to industries outside of Silicon Valley. If your goal is to align with customers or stakeholders in any field, this book will help show the way. These concepts can work for nonprofit organizations, accounting agencies, widget manufacturers, or law offices. The guidance contained herein is a starting point. Use what works for you, adjust the advice as it makes sense for your situation, and build upon your experience.
These techniques are not complicated. Anyone can learn them, including technical engineers, experienced marketers, and even high-level executives.
BUT I WANT TO WING IT!
You may think you're a great communicator and don't need external guidance. Maybe you even think that when you wing it, you outperform your hyperprepared colleagues. You're more natural, relatable, at ease. That may be so, but for us it was clear that winging it in our customer alignment meetings wasn't working. While I, too, like thinking on my feet, and in many cases find planning and training to be annoying, I realized that by failing to develop our customer interfacing skills, we spent too many mental cycles thinking about what to say. Worse yet, for those of us who spent no time thinking about what to say, the results could be disastrous. Feet were inserted into mouths regularly.
Corporations usually provide sales training to their customer-facing employees but don't extend such lessons to their internal engineering and planning personnel. When subject matter experts lack basic training, however, sales teams loathe when they show up to customer meetings. They're unknown quantities and could derail the relationship with one half-baked comment. That's unfortunate because, often, customer insights that matter most are aired precisely when customers talk directly with those creating a company's services, not only those tasked with selling them.
This book bridges that gap. It provides easy-to-remember tips for reliably interacting with customers. The goal isn't about issue resolution here, but rather about aligning road maps and improving the planning process by eliciting trustworthy, unbiased, and useful customer insights and information. This kind of customer-facing training is essential. Subject matter experts can be key to working with customers, most especially so when they have the skills to interact with tact and precision.
Ask yourself this: What's your focus during a customer meeting? Is it on questioning techniques? Interpersonal skills? Probably not. No, you focus on the content of the discussion and, as you do, you naturally snap into whatever conversational habits you've developed over your life. That could mean you interrupt as soon as you disagree with what's being said. Or it could be you ask verbose and wandering questions that do more telling than asking. In some contexts, these tendencies have merit. In others, they are disruptive. Conversely, going by instinct could mean you never utter a peep. Silence could result in failing to gain critical information too.
To lay the ground for a useful discussion, conversational skills must be molded into habit, so you don't have to think about them. In other words, the way we question and listen needs to be automatic or second nature, so we are free to focus on the content of the conversation.
(Continues…)
Excerpted from "Align"
by .
Copyright © 2019 Laura Reese.
Excerpted by permission of Dover Publications, Inc..
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