Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Just Like Everyone Else

I just got off the phone with one of my current clients. She is the COO of a large public entity in the midst of evaluating some vendors for medical coverage.

The conversation went like this. "Wendy, how did the Finalist sessions go?" Her response, "all four of them provided my team with an overwhelming amount of content with a totally underwhelming amount of impact!"

I paused and asked, "What went wrong?"

Wendy said, "their logos by default got them to our table, but they felt the need to spend the majority of their time reselling us on their credibility? To make matters worse, they talked about all of their capabilities without taking into consideration our business, our problems, our measures for success."

I replied to Wendy, "didn't you tell all of them what you expected?" Her reply, "I was very clear; connect what you offer to what matters most to us. As obvious as I thought my request was, all four venders failed. Now it feels like we're picking the best of the worst."

Are you thinking... Your team would have presented differently? That your team's presentation to Wendy would have been unique?

Guess what... Odds are very high (>90%) that you're unique, JUST LIKE EVERYONE ELSE.

Stand apart... Change your results by changing your dialogue...