Paradox II: Soft Skills Make a Hard Difference
"The good news", the CEO tells her new VP for sales and marketing, "is that you have 150 people working for you. The bad news is none of them know it."
Does this sound funny but true? Charles Handy (1995) suggests in The Age of Paradox that seemingly contradictory concepts guide modern management practices. Among them are the one faced by the new VP for sales: encourage autonomy in the work force while being accountable for their performance. Others include: act globally and locally at the same time; be planned yet flexible; cater to niches while being a mass marketer; and emphasize both teamwork and independent thinking. Successful modern businesses, he asserts, reconcile the contradictions rather than choose between them.
Contradictory concepts guide modern management.
In an earlier newsletter (November, 1997), I wrote about "SST® & SPIN: A Paradox". On the surface it seems that SPIN should be easier than SST. Paradoxically, however, our field research consistently shows that the steps and tools comprising SST® are easier to master and use than SPIN. Asking good questions simply requires more practice and discipline than relating to clients in their preferred communication style.
This article treats yet another business paradox we have discovered: Soft skills make a hard difference. The formulation of this paradox is based on our experiences helping clients in diverse industries: from information technology, to windows and doors, to prescription benefit managers to kosher poultry to higher education.
Perhaps it is not surprising that the issues our clients confront are more similar than they are different. They all want to sell on value rather than compete in the market as a commodity.
Most seek to distinguish their products or services with so called hard differentiators. One will go to market with a shinier bell. Meanwhile, the competition has researched and developed a louder whistle.
Then, it is left to the poor sales staff to position themselves with prospective clients on the relative features, advantages and benefits of shinier bells or louder whistles. While the research and development guys think it is the break through of the century, prospective clients respond with dreaded "MEGO". (This is the acronym for "My Eyes Glaze Over")
The crucial element that is often left out of the "hard differentiators" approach to sales and marketing is the client. Mike Morucci, sales director of Penn State Geisinger Health Plan, summed up what he called the central tenet of SST®, "It is
not about you. It is about them." Once we are able to translate Mike's contribution to Latin, we will use it as the official SST motto.
"It is not about you. It is about them." Mike Morucci, PSGHP
Rackham's (1988) research shows that the introduction
of hard differentiators is typically met with a decline in sales performance. This is because most sales people pitch them more and seek to understand less. Pitching hard differentiators actually drives clients further away.
We have learned that the best way to sell value is through so called "soft skills''. It begins with a focus, not on "hard differentiators" but on "them", the clients. Excellent questions, asked the right way, are soft skills that are essential to understanding the client. The second essential SST® skill is planning and
implementing strategies for multiple buying influences in the account. Miller & Heiman (1998) have called them economic, user and technical buyers. Last, but definitely not least, selling on value requires communicating effectively with the buyers in their (not your) preferred style.
Hard differentiators like shinier bells and louder whistles fail to produce hard results. Pitching them puts the focus on "you" and not on "them". The soft differentiators of "asking the right question right", listening, and communicating in the preferred style of your client puts the focus where it belongs: on the client.
Paradoxically, soft differentiators, and not hard ones, produce hard results.