What happens when you engage with Mainstream?
An interview with Patsy Dather, Account Manager, Mainstream Technologies
Evidence and Impact – “The ability to understand the need and once it’s resolved, quantify how it will affect the organization.”
“Our goal from a sales perspective is to understand from the business side what it is the client is trying to fix, build, accomplish, or improve upon. What is their challenge? Are they trying to solve a business problem or are they trying to grow their revenue? Are they trying to reduce their costs or are they trying to add efficiency improvements? What will the solution mean for their business?
A conversation with a non-technical stakeholder in the business, speaking in business terms is essential for clarifying the evidence and what their expectations are for the impact to the business.
The next thing we need to know is how will the impact be measured at the end of the day? Will it be measured in revenue, efficiency improvements or customer satisfaction? Will it be measured in dollars or even on a scale of 1 to 10? Once we know what we’ll be measuring and how it will be measured, we’ll know whether we’re the right fit for the client.
The worst thing that could happen is to work for somebody and our efforts don’t move the needle for them. It’s important to make sure that everybody understands that whatever we do has value.”
Evidence and Impact
“If the client is somewhat familiar with our reputation and value proposition, then they most likely will have a good idea of our talent, capabilities, and experience. This familiarity will result in a level of comfort and an open mind to accept us as a partner from the beginning. This will help us get the time we need to get the information we need to do the job.
Initially, it will take a couple of hours with key stakeholders such as a COO and VP of Technology to kick off the process. Our goal is to understand as much as possible about their goals, their ambitions, and challenges. This knowledge will help us determine the order for their priorities. If the client is forthcoming, we generally come out of these meeting(s) with more than we need. The process works.
The Evidence and Impact (E&I) process is designed to build trust, respect and an affinity with the client. At some point during the relationship, they’ll discover that we’re not there to just make a sale, we’re there do the right thing for them. When they realize this, the foundation is laid for a great working relationship. Once we’ve completed the first project, they’ll see that we do what we say and we’re able to articulate what the results were and how it impacted the business.
They may appreciate working with us personally, but more importantly, they’ll have the business impact in hand to validate the difference we’ve made. At the end of the day, people want to buy from people who help them succeed.
It’s not uncommon to identify several pieces of work that need attention. Some may require a lot of effort while others not much at all. As we discuss the expected outcomes and the resulting impact of solving each of these challenges, often we can identify a single project that once delivered, the impact is significant enough to underwrite the others.”
Conclusion
“The E&I process helps us understand what’s important to the client. What their goals are for the year? What the big pieces of the business they want to change, improve, or add to? The process brings clarity to what we can we do to help them make money, save money, free up time or improve the customer experience.
We’re not in business to just sell. We want to make sure we can make a difference, we’re a good fit and working together makes sense for both of parties. After all, we’ve worked very hard the past 18 years to develop the reputation that we bring value to our clients.”
If you run your company on technology, it’s strategic to your business success, give us a call @ 501.801.6700 or send us an email @ info@mainstream-tech.com.
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