Listening improves understanding and helps to get buy in.
Customer Journey Series: Kami
This article is part of a customer journey series following “Kami,” a sales leader in pharma managing competitive changes and new leadership.
Her journey explores building leadership confidence, managing up, navigating organizational change, and positioning herself for the next level.
Each post explores a real coaching conversation or leadership challenge from that journey.
This is the fourth post in the series.
Within a few weeks, Kami reported that the new GM, Robert, had come to her with an exciting opportunity.
Robert was a critical thinker, and he recognized Kami’s ability to think critically, too. They were both looking at pieces in place to address future problems.
According to Kami, Robert was very interested in Over the Counter (OTC) sales.
“He sees past prescription sales, and I agree with that. Even though we are a prescription brand now, we have a brand awareness in the public that’s valuable. We have to see how to communicate value to the consumer.”
She noted that Robert is more reserved than John. However, he had seen Kami’s work with her team and told her: “I’d love to have you and your team brainstorm about how to improve the brand position.”
Kami was thrilled. So, he put her on a cross-functional team of peers working on new options for expansion.
In these meetings, Kami committed herself to first to gather information. She wanted to implement the listening skills she had learned before to slow down, manage her own ego and desire to be heard, and tune into others.
Working with cross functional peers is a difficult task because it’s about growing influence without authority. Here, trust and relationships become most important.
“I need to understand what their perspective is on the customers. Listening helps me understand and helps to get their buy in.”
She also started making pre-meetings with this new group, fleshing out their ideas and getting alignment. She noticed that when she helped them own and clarify their ideas, she had greater impact and influence.
“I truly want to build relationships with prospective partners.”
She made a list of the concerns she wanted to focus on:
- What am I missing?
- How can we enhance our online presence?
- How can we make it easier for the customers to get what they need?
- What features or offers will help differentiate us?
Building Influence Before the Meeting
She made time to meet with her cross-functional peers. Mostly she wanted to build the relationships, but she also wanted to find out what they thought and where they aligned.
As she met them one-on-one, she learned to like them. They were all smart and had good ideas. The people from the marketing team were particularly sharp. They helped Kami hone her ideas about what customers want and what triggers buying.
When she floated some of her ideas in these pre-meetings, it felt safe to try out ideas. People often liked her ideas and added their thoughts. Kami took careful notes and incorporated ideas from a few others into her suggestions. Kami used her listening skills. She knew that these meetings were important for building trust and creating support for her ideas.
Overall in the meetings, she decided it was most important to highlight how to make the customer’s life easier. She was building influence without authority as she managed up and built relationships across the organization.
Within a few meetings, this new group all agreed with Robert that they should figure out a strategy to go over the counter.
“This company is small enough for me to get recognition. My visibility is good and I have proximity to key players. Honestly, the satisfaction I have now is better than any I’ve had before.”
Continue the Journey
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