Archiv der Kategorie: Communication

Communication consists of perception, thought models and communication behavior.

PERYOU – Does the customer get what I have or what he wants?

The best offer is the package that supplies the customer with the best result. Afterwards, even the latest knows what this is. The difficulty is the blur of the potential customer needs and the first proposals of the bidder. In the early phases of the contact both parties don’t know each other sufficiently. Therefore it is important to bring the ideas into a form that makes the selection easy for the customer. Does the customer get what one has or what he wants?

persie

For all offerers it is crucial to accept that there is no other objectivity in dealing with the customers but their subjectivity. For this reason the components of the offer should be peryouficated. The following items help.

  • Put off the eyeglasses!
    In the first step it is important to let go the own filters that obstruct the neutral look at the customers. The colored eyeglasses affect not only the contrast between the aspects, but extract certain colors. Your own experience, knowledge and hypothesis manipulate the same way, what you notice with a customer and its topics. Unfortunately you cannot escape completely from your own mental models, since you only understand what you already know. Examples are the terms that are available to you and always need the context, in order to have the chance of being understood: Realization, groundwork, values, measures, effluvium/affluvium, mesmerization as well as any other terms. Therefore, always put off the eyeglasses!
  • Put on the eyeglasses!
    In the second step you focus on understanding the customer. Without your own bias you recognize your counterpart more easily. You observe the nonverbal messages of the body language and empathize. At this moment it is not only a matter of answering but also of experiencing the said, including the corresponding feelings (e.g. faster breath or heart beat in difficult situations). You recognize thereby, where the customers see their benefit. These are at first sight rather functional advantages. However, often these are more emotional advantages. The value of a service appears after you consider the required sacrifices of the customer. This is mostly not the price of the deliverable, but the accompanying expenditures for the realization, like necessary, internal means and employees. Thus a clear picture arises within shortest time. If you take over the acquired hue of the customer, you see from then on the topic with his eyes. Therefore, put on the eyeglasses!
  • Peryouficating
    In the third step it is a matter of translating your offer in such a way to the customer that he can assess it from his own view and hopefully will make the right choice. The appropriate word selection can be derived from the usual formulations. This step we simply call peryoufication (derived from per you = through the counterpart and fication = make). For this purpose you do not describe what you as an offerer know, have and are able to do, but what the customer learns, gets and will be able to do. Let’s look at the following two examples of proposals.
    <1) Our specialists analyze the situation, develop alternative solutions and provide professional business models. We master the newest methods, know all legal conditions and future challenges.>
    Peryouficated could look like this one.
    <2) You receive a clear assessment of your starting position and a selection from meaningful options, in order to make your business fit for the pending tasks. You learn effective procedures, fulfill reliably the legal requirements and you sustainably successful.>
    With whom would you rather collaborate?

Even if the examples seem to be both and simple at first sight, sooner or later you recognize the difference. In the real world further aspects are added, like e.g. the appropriate word choice, the personal behavior, and the dressing. In any case it is better to focus on the view of the customers, than on yourself.

Bottom line: Regardless of your field of expertise it is favorable to consider and formulate the tasks from the perspective of the customer. This will makes it easier for the customer to understand and valuate an offer and to decide for it. PERYOU the customer gets what he wants.

The house building – the ideal metaphor for a project

The longest project experience gained mankind with the building of its accommodations. After the available caves were occupied and people went on journey, 100,000 years ago, all have built ever more frequently a hideout. With the extension of businesses from hunters and gatherers to farmers and herders, these dwellings became more and more stable and complex in the last 10,000 years. Building houses became a profession that developed since then more and more know-how and forms. Thus the building of houses with its procedures is a basic experience of us, the ideal metaphor for a project.

hausbau

In the past twenty years the processing of projects was standardized within all areas. Nevertheless two thirds of the projects (see here: http://ow.ly/zy5hB ) still fail. In order to provide a feeling of normal completion to the participants, the building of houses offers the structure for the procedures, dependences, interim results and restrictions that can be transferred to all kinds of projects with its construction phases.

  • Preparation
    The building of houses also begins a long time before the groundbreaking. The question arises, how the own four walls should look like – a house, a Penthouse, an apartment, old or new building. An important condition is the location – in the country, in the city suburb or in the city center. All of this leads to the question whether you can afford the new haven at all.
    Business projects have to worry about similar questions. Making or buying the solution? How does the existing infrastructure look like? How large is the available budget? Who is the ideal project partner? Here again the substantial conditions have to be compiled, before the project is approved at all. For the sake of simplicity, we take a look at an IT-project hereinafter.
  • Plan
    After the official commissioning the real planning begins. Rough ideas are now exchanged between the owner and the architect as well as the other craftsmen. More serious conceptions of the result evolve. A more precise calculation of the costs and dates is now possible. IT-projects could be estimated more exactly before the start. Due to the general backlog of developments the participants save the expenditure and only start with real estimations, when the project officially begins. Now the original estimations can be adapted. Is there not enough budget and time at a closer look, it is now the last possibility to stop the project without large losses. With the next phase genuine construction costs arise.
  • Shell construction
    The permanent peer pressure of the clients produces unrealistic milestones. With the house building it is regulated by a certain procedure. The foundation has been laid before the walls can be built. The roof can only be raised, after all floors are finished below. Crucial milestone is the roofing ceremony, because the shell construction is done.
    The software development has similar restrictions. Nevertheless the IT-specialists tend to work excessively in parallel. This results frequently in the fact that modules have to be changed or programmed from scratch afterwards. Contrary to the house building, with its roofing ceremony, there is not a respective milestone in IT. The participants have difficulties to find an end and change and change…
  • Interior fittings
    At latest in this section all participants notice, how the final results will look like. The size of the rooms and the windows, the course of the stairs, the entrances, the distances to the adjoining property, etc. From now on changes can only be made within the finished frame – putting a wall here or pulling out a non-load-bearing wall. With the interior fittings completely new players are added, who must be introduced. A fuzzy planning of their tasks can extend the entire schedule with its already existing delays additionally.
    Similarly the development of the user interface and the final definition of formulas and reports are running. Each fundamental change penetrates the already finished parts and does not only bring additional time delays, but also new sources for errors.
  • Moving in
    The moving in is the last logistic challenge. Furniture must be brought intact into the house and do not immediately ruin, if possible, the newly built house. Now you will see whether all measurements are correct and that there is sufficient space. Does the kitchen fit? Is there enough space around the bed? Is the cellar large enough?
    With the respective Go-live of software the application begins for the real users. The software has to function from now on under real operative conditions. The less the users were prepared with trainings and tests, the more probable are difficulties, which have to be repaired during operation. This is the end of the actual project – however IT-projects mostly do not finish here, since from now on you improve, and improve, – until the next version.

Bottom line: The house building is the ideal metaphor for a project, since it shows the dependencies of work packages. The basic steps become visible, like e.g. the upstream decision with its extensive consequences, the planning that secures the smooth operation, the structure of the shell construction that creates the framework for the later contents, the final arrangement of the details and eventually the hand-over to operations. Several thousand years of experience are conveyed by this metaphor and to facilitate the alignment.