That we are today in a transcendental moment of management in the company is not because technology is advancing by leaps and bounds, almost at the speed of light, nor because communication allows us to have information in real time and nor because globalization is a made palpable, no.
This significance is given because the buyer, when choosing a supplier, is no longer linear.
When a company is chosen as a supplier, it is no longer just because it has optimum quality, but because it is perceived as someone who can be trusted. Today, the client is moved by feelings: "This provider makes me feel good, I bet on him."
Also, this customer wants to stay with that provider forever. You need trusted collaborators to help you give the answer that your customers demand of you, and who better! than your suppliers.
In other words, the client has joined trust and loyalty. He has broken the linearity that existed between excellent communication technologies, techniques and systems and being elected. He is now moved by feelings, so trying to impact him on a rational level is very complicated, if not impossible.
This is the reason why talking about stratospheric benefits, soft loans, call centers, point cards…, no longer makes any impression on you. It does not reach the heart, it stays in the mind and, today, the mental impact does not go beyond "I have no choice", which means that it will not create any kind of commitment with the provider. That commitment will only come true if the impact is on the heart, that is, if the impact is emotional.
Now, this new reality implies, on the one hand, that you have to fully immerse yourself in the world of emotions and, on the other, as a direct consequence, that the professional has to be the only protagonist, which is hard to assimilate, especially from the technician, which is totally logical. We have always been educated in the direction of knowledge, experience, skills and cutting-edge technologies and techniques, so that now we are told that all this is secondary and the professional is the key. It can be rationally accepted, but getting to feel it will cost.
And it will cost because for this you have to feel that emotions are at the beginning and at the end of all decision mechanisms and that feeling, without knowing what emotions are and how they are managed, is very problematic to have.
For thousands of years we have ignored that emotions are behind behavior, both individual and collective. That is the reason why, when, for example, we have been before a client and before their behavior we have had a response that has made us miss an opportunity, we have the usual reaction of blaming it on the bad character of the client or the bad product that We either have the bad image of our company or…, that is, we always find the reasons outside ourselves, we rarely recognize the emotion of fear or anger that we have had, the thought associated with that emotion and the feeling that we has led to such an answer.
As long as we do not solve these deficits, we will not be able to make an emotional impact, hence the urgency to start talking about emotions.
Thus, the reality of business activity today revolves around the client deciding based on emotional perceptions -which implies that the supplier has emotionally developed professionals-, and is seeking to have a supplier for life -which implies that these professionals should be the only protagonists.
It is not surprising, therefore, that we are experiencing the dramatic paradox of having the highest levels of excellence, the best after-sales service, the largest investment in R&D, the largest number of people on the street…, and, instead, to be having the greatest difficulties to get clients and, let alone, for them to stay. We are at a crucial moment. Either you bet on more of the same or on 'creating' a professional capable of making an emotional impact. They are the two alternatives. Which one do you decide for?
