For important deals, we often research accounts to build an understanding of their business that illuminates a path forward that we call our sales campaign. We see and observe the customer’s corporate executive priorities, carefully determining which ones we might be able to directly or indirectly advance with our offerings. When appropriate, we then look for the operational initiatives that advance those priorities, along with the customer functions, like the technology enablement group or marketing, that support the advancement of those initiatives. It is this understanding that lights up, and makes visible, a value chain that we can map into with our thought leadership and offerings. But what good is light to the blind?
Suppose that an account executive’s focus is principally on one customer department and not on the account, holistically? For that individual, that department is for all intents and purposes the account. This is selling blindness!
But, suppose the account executive is covering the entire account, working diligently to discover and provide thought leadership and business value throughout the customer value chain, but is not working with customer individuals that have the power and influence to promote that thought leadership within their executive ranks? This is customer blindness! For what good is all the value in the world if the customer can’t see it?
The discovery of customer value requires sight. The recognition, appreciation, and support of that value requires sight. Do you see your accounts? Do they see you?