Don't Answer My Question...
Don’t answer my question! Tell me what I need to know…
I was having a conversation with another salesperson recently and he was excited that he had helped a key customer out of a jam. Turns out a Purchasing Agent had ordered a piece of equipment of some kind and when it arrived on the dock the engineers called Purchasing frantically wondering where the “adapter” was? Turns out that often… very often in fact… This equipment needed some kind of adapter. My fellow sales person was pretty proud that he was able to get the adapter shipped overnight and it was there 1st thing the next day.
Now yes… Great recovery and you did save the day by getting it there overnight. The Purchasing Agent hadn’t ordered it so it wasn’t your fault and you sure got him off the hook by getting it there so quickly.
But… Wouldn’t it have been really powerful if you had asked the Purchasing Agent when he ordered it if he might need an adapter? Wouldn’t you have made him look terrific and effective if you had sent him back to the engineers armed with the right questions before the order was placed?
This made me think of another company I had come across and their Mission Statement:
“To make you look smarter to your boss than we both know you really are”.
Now you may take that as a sarcastic or insulting remark but that is certainly not how the originator nor I mean it. There is opportunity in educating the customer in whatever business you are trying to conduct and there is a friend to be made in the one you are educating.
If we go back to our Purchasing Agent and his needs, the scenario seems to be that the engineers told Purchasing to get them something and they supplied a manufacturer and model #. The customer got exactly what they asked for. What they didn’t get was what they really needed.
I have said many times ”don’t answer my question, tell me what I need to know”. In this case, the Purchasing Agent could have been asked if they needed an adapter (evidently pretty common), and whatever other questions may be pertinent. Anticipating what the need may be, being aware of special circumstances like the adapter, offering cost saving alternatives or more timely solutions might all be critical pieces of a puzzle. I don’t know what those pieces are but you, the expert, surely do. See through what I am asking and give me what I need not what I asked for.
Why Ask Why?
When I worked in the plating shop I used to answer many questions with a question. “What is the Rockwell hardness of electroless nickel?” was a common question. I would ask “Why?”. Why ask why you ask?
How hard is electroless nickel is kind of a loaded question. There are a lot of applications where the hardness is super critical and I want to be sure I don’t give you bad info. If you’re plating a hardened steel alloy I may need to know more about the material before I can completely answer you. Can I bake the electroless nickel or will that change the hardness of the steel? Is there a phosphorous content requirement that may impact the hardness? And in looking for clues I have to think… Most coatings are not measured in Rockwell hardness as that is more commonly used for the base materials. Electroless nickel is most often measured using the Knoop scale and a knowledgable plating engineer would ask for that number. So if it’s not somebody who truly knows coatings that’s asking I need to know what they want to accomplish if I’m going to give them a good answer.
I bet 90% of the time the answer to “Why do you want to know how hard electroless nickel is” was “because I’m making a slide and my customer wants a coating that’s really hard. Well, yes they do. They also want something that has good lubricity and they also probably want a very smooth surface to reduce friction. So my answer wouldn’t be “Rockwell close to 64” it would more likely be...
“the electroless nickel with a post bake is typically hard enough for a slide application. It has excellent lubricity so it will slide well against the opposing part. You should also make sure that the base material is close to polished smooth and free of any machine tool marks or burrs.”.
In my example and the example of the equipment supplier above, some good questions and the presentation of a few facts change things dramatically. And you too can provide this for your customer.
If you can provide your customers this value added service they will start to count on you as a technical resource. You may have an opportunity to have valuable input and suggestions that could make the job run so much easier. You can bring up critical points that usually don’t get brought up until the parts are already late and sitting on your shipping dock. And if you were the one who helped engineer the plating why would they send it to another plater?
In addition, asking good questions and offering good solutions can set you apart from your competition. If the other guy just answers the question but you can make some really good suggestions you may not only get the job, you may get the job at a higher price. I can recall doing quotes for customers and having them say something like “the other guy didn’t say they needed to be baked after plating” and me pointing out that the hardened steel needs a hydrogen embrittlement bake after plating or it may fail in the field… Are you SURE you want to send them to the other guy?!?
Lastly, you just made a friend. If you can make your contact the in-house finishing expert at that company, and I don’t care if your lips move when he talks, you have made a very good friend. This can lead to a long-term relationship that can stretch across many years and often that relationship will span other jobs and companies. I still get calls from people I knew when they worked someplace else 20 years and 3 companies ago.
So yes, making someone look smarter than we both know they are is actually a very good thing. It’s good for them, good for the end user and ultimately good for you. And you never know, sometimes in the middle of all this, it can help us become a little smarter ourselves!