18. How to make sisters and brothers

How to make sisters and brothers 18.

The concept of “sisters and brothers” is a way of structuring your own work with your own customers and then using knowledge from prior success stories for the next customer. You can often reuse most of a positive and fruitful relation with some fine-tuning and smaller tweaks. Of course, you’ll see new needs and demands and remove some details that won’t work on the next client, but the foundation stays the same. First you must build this structure of information, so it will work when you execute it in your dialog with your customer, step-by-step and customer-by-customer. Using this mindset will optimize yourself and your recourses in the best way possible based on your own organization.

Start out by defining your own customer base. How many are above a minimal turnover (outline only your regular customers) and find out what share each one has of your total turnover (if a few have a too big part of your business, you perhaps have a sensitive issue to deal with). Also estimate the potential volume per customer, they might deal with more than one supplier like you and add how repetitive they are today – it could be of great value to them ordering more frequently and having less in stock. Investigate if they are increasing or decreasing their business in volume, profit, and job length per order. It’s important to get this type of data as comprehensive as possible and without engaging your own personal feelings. Don’t add your built-in legacy as a value and don’t “dress up the queen”, instead you should be completely honest to yourself. It’s the same when you do your SWOT, analyze the model (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) that gives you a view of your possibilities, on one hand, and what you must improve to be a better service provider,

on the other hand. Organize this SWOT for yourself or even better in groups or by department and you will see how people perceive things differently. With all this defined, you are good to go to the next half and build your own go-to-market strategy. This is more about how to execute from your collection of data, which has become the foundation of how to do it. Here, prioritizing is a must and “sister and brothers” can help you organize from one customer to another. Build your success on already made successes and approach each and every one of your selected customers. The new digital chain in your new toolbox adds plenty of new values, like speed to market and a massive flexibility that allows you to follow the increasing demands of your customers. You should analyze your own status as of today, your position and why you are where you are in your own segment. Go through the products you offer today and why customers are buying from just you (no legacy included). All of the reasons gathered in this process become good value and add knowledge to your new digital transformation – except for one reason, lower price. The next thing on the agenda is to define who to start with and which customer you should approach first with your new digital value proposition. Use the mindset of “sisters and brothers” and remember that they function on a oneby-one basis; don’t attack all of them at the same time. There is no way you can support all customers simultaneously and you don’t carry any experience of that.

Now, here you are with your best and most trusted customers. Those you might already have a dialog with and a good relationship with. Your favorites; let’s call them your new digital VIPs. They will form your base when building the new platform on how to work within this process, going from being only a supplier to now becoming a vital part in a partner-relation. It will increase your possibilities to distribute your new value proposition and increase your new competitive advantage. As we train on how to operate all new hardware tools (digital press), we also want to guide and lead you through the first upcoming dialogs between you and your VIPs. With this cooperation and your collected data, you will be able to approach the rest of the chosen customers later on and remember that all customers are different, so you need different approaches to different customers. They are your new “sisters and brothers”. You will find out how welcomed your new approach is when you set up new different meetings including your new values. Together with your customer you will now build the dialog around how to work within a new and more effective process. Your customer’s products will then also compete better. You can now, as a team, also plan for the upcoming needs of tomorrow.

When you see that the dialog and the process is working you should document every key-point leading up to that success. Which tool was the most effective in the process, what made the customer realize that they really wanted to do what? Document this as thoroughly as possible. Note how it was done, how the costumers responded, which need they had, how to solve this with what new tool from your new toolbox, etc. If there were mistakes or misunderstandings during the process, note them as well, they also have a value in your future work. Debriefing is the best learning process for success and that kind of knowledge will guide you to do it right next time around. Now you have concluded your first case. This process can then be used as a platform for your next VIP and then for more and more of your customers. “Sisters and brothers” distinguish that all people are different. So, take the best from one sister or brother and then add same new components, twist it, remove some, and you’ll have a new baby and your successful family keeps growing step by step. Please note that I still haven’t talked about potential customers outside of your existing customer base. I’m a strong believer in starting to work with what you got today. It’s a lot cheaper, three times more effective than trying to get new ones from the competition. If you do things right they will come to you sooner or later. Rumors travel faster than you think in our business, not only the bad ones but also the good ones. Brand owners talk a lot to each other, on how to solve new challenges, their upcoming needs, and how to find new fulfilment. You will have new customers approaching and the good thing is that you are the one setting the price for your added value. If you instead start by approaching a new customer, prices and margins will be your dialogue instead of your value. Working within your own customer base first will not exclude the need for some marketing. Your market out there must be aware of your existence and the fact that you are around. Show your presence and how they can reach you; there is a big demand for new digital tools even if many still don’t really know about it – yet.