Nizan Guanaes
It’s always a good idea to look to your left and right and learn how others are getting it right. A case in point is Nizan Guanaes, a Brazilian communications expert. A little-known but accomplished entrepreneur he cultivated a larger-than-life image and grew to be a major player in the communications industry.
In studying what Guanaes achieved, Rosabeth Moss Kanter drew several lessons about how to create major impact in business. We translated her insights to the world of sales.
- Think big and be there first. Take a look at your account strategy for your top 10 accounts and figure out how you can have a major impact with those customers. A good first step is being out front. Work with your customers to define an issue vs. waiting and being responsive after others define the problems.
- Leverage others to increase impact. The day of the lone wolf has passed. To achieve major impact you need to mobilize others in your company to support your effort. Leverage your technical folks, customer support, and anyone else inside your company that interacts with your customers.
- Create continuous value. Creating major impact requires substantial effort over an extended period of time but you need to provide value to the customer all along with way. In each interaction with the custom ask yourself the question – What tangible bit of value did I provide the customer on this call?
- Seek out gems. Develop a comprehensive understanding of the customer and their issues. In doing so, you’re likely to find gems that the competition or even the customer isn’t aware. Helping a customer to address a need before it becomes a problem is another way to have major impact.
In today’s market it is difficult to differentiate yourself by simply doing a better job of doing what everyone else is doing – think big and be there first.
