We are witnessing one of the most momentous moments in company management, given the depth of the change that is taking place, which, from the observer's vantage point, is something exciting, although for many it is being a material and psychological ordeal.
For quite some time now, different professionals, with technical careers, have been defending the need for a thorough review of what is being done and how it is being done, but not from a technical perspective, but from a focus perspective. We have been insisting that the technological and technical aspects are essential to be in the market, but that they are not what make the client decide for it in most cases.
We have been claiming, even at the risk of being branded 'apostates', that knowledge was being secondary.
We have been claiming the need for a catharsis in the technician that makes him aware that the subtle has replaced the objective. But nothing.
It is still perceived as ethereal theories, very far from what is the reality of the day to day. But look, where, it seems that we were not so wrong.
Companies with state-of-the-art technology, well positioned and with all the praise of the political powers, are beginning to have serious problems, which has caused the red light to come on.
Although it is a mistake, since I always say the same thing, I have not yet seen a company have closed due to gaps in its production system. Instead, what I do see is that companies close because they don't have profitable customers. And always, too, I ask myself the same question, why, then, do we not focus on the profitable customer?
Not focusing on that profitable customer is what is causing us to misdiagnose.
The problem is not to improve, but to change. Continuing to believe that the end of the company is the sale, is the great mistake that makes maintaining immovable positions.
The aim of the company must be to get the profitable customer excited and as a consequence the sale will take place. The sale as a consequence, rather than as an end.
This is the change. And as long as this does not sit in the gut, change will not occur, whatever is said and whatever is done. There it is, as a more obvious example, the CRM failure rate.
The change, therefore, is to move from putting the emphasis on customer acquisition, to putting it on retention, from focusing on pre-sales and sales activities, to after-sales activities.
It is, therefore, a change of great significance, since capture is achieved through rational aspects, but retention is only possible through the emotional. I know that talking about emotions, sensations, feelings sounds like heavenly songs, but it is the conclusion that I have reached after having interviewed more than 1,500 companies during the last ten years.
If today you want to create stable and lasting relationships with profitable customers, you have to connect emotionally with them. And it is not a personal opinion, it is the absolute reality.
We are, then, before the great revolution. The emotional connection can only be made by the professional, which makes him become the great protagonist, having to adapt the techniques, methodologies and instruments to him.
It is true that grandiose statements are made stating that the professional is the great asset and similar niceties, but they are for the gallery. The reality is that the company is obsessed with technology. His main concern is to equip himself with the most advanced means, which the professional will then adapt to them. This affirming one thing and doing another is cancer.
But the thing is not there. If in itself, that the professional is the only protagonist is a change of great significance, asserting now that the success of that professional depends fundamentally on his emotional aptitudes, can make that tearing his clothes is a simple anecdote.
Of course, academic knowledge, technical skills and experience are important, but they do not guarantee anything. Today, creating mutually beneficial relationships, the key to loyalty, is only possible through the ability to know what others are feeling and the ability to emotionally tune in with them.
It is scientifically proven that what contributes the Intellectual Coefficient (IQ) to success, in the best of cases, is around 20%, which means that the rest, over 80%, depends on other aspects. That is, there is another way of being intelligent: Emotional Intelligence (EI).
EI enables professionals to identify their own emotions and those of others, and to know how to put themselves in the shoes of others, a crucial aspect in order to develop appropriate relationships. EI empowers the professional to converge with the client on their emotional needs, which, in most cases, are the determinants of their decisions. EI is the greatest discovery.
Now, let no one think that for this you have to be a psychoanalyst or do a master's degree on IE in the USA. Not much less. As soon as we become real aware that it is true, seeing it in ourselves, that when we decide on a provider, the emotional has more weight than the rational, we will have already started to develop our EI.
