Premise:
The premise of “Let's Get Real or Let's Not Play” is that business development must be totally client focused. Customers want to buy and not to be sold a bill of goods. This is a paradigm shift or a new mental model that advocates a methodology where two companies mutually decided to work together with the goal of meeting the client’s needs while providing a profitable engagement for the service provider, trusted adviser or professional service organization.
What I learned:
• In the real world, consultants tend not to listen, make assumptions, have preconceived solutions, and are focused on selling their products or services without really understanding the critical business needs of their customers.
• Clients are not always sure what they need; they can't articulate what they need, they don't agree collectively on what is needed or they are not willing to spend the time to gather the information which will allow the consultants to understand their needs. In other words, the client and the consultant are guessing on how to solve a problem that neither of them totally understands. The key point behind "Let's Get Real or Let’s Not Play" is to take out guessing from the solution development process.
• Intent counts more than technique is a soft skill we all need to develop. This concept encourages a focus on the consultant’s motivation behind helping the client succeed which can be detected and counts more than all of one’s sophisticated techniques to sell the client a solution to an undefined problem.
• Slow down for yellow lights gets to the heart of asking clarifying questions. Running yellow lights is the norm when clients express concerns about a proposed solution. When we hear or see a yellow light in our discussions with the client, we need to slow down and seek clarification and not do what we normally do in traffic, which is to speed up or run through yellow lights.
• The sales methodologies that the book advocates are called the ORDER process. Order is an acronym for opportunity, resources, decision process, exact solution and relationship.
Conclusion:
This is a great book for building a consulting practice and teaching consultants true business development concept that work in the real world. This is a client focused model that can transform your organization to meet your client’s needs and to be seen as true professionals focused on asking great questions and will enhance your staffs active listen skills. Let’s Get Real or Let’s Not Play is also based on Stephen Covey's Seven Habits of Highly Effective People and is principle centered in its approach to building a high power business development practice.
By the way, I've had the pleasure of working for Randy Illig during my tenure at Vis.align and every consultant was trained on the principles and practices of this consulting methodology. So I have firsthand experience with the processes in this material and it works.
Principles of Execution Key Concepts:
- Relationship Sales Training
- Executive Coaching
- Mahan Khalsa Consulting Methodology
Share your ideas or thoughts!