Change Over Plans

An American fella now living in England called David, does something differently from the rest of his team that I just found out about.  Part of their responsibility requires an annual account management ‘re-visit’.

When this takes place, all the other guys ask what the client would like.  A kind of ‘what are your plans’ conversation.  When I was a cub-rep I loved this one.  Once you’d established a bit of rapport and gained some credibility, asking anyone what they hoped to make happen over the coming months meant you were invariably treated to hour-long monologues on the world as it should be which’d make your life so much easier.

David doesn’t do this.  His first real question is ‘what’s changed since last time?’.  Amazingly, he gathers all sorts of key intel from this that helps him propose (and gain acceptance for) all manner of ‘upgrades’.

Personally, it sounds a touch negative to me.  But then in England many people are permanently miserable given the weather and inept footie team :-0

His success though makes me re-assess this opinion, and I must resolve to go down this route too on any service where a previous quote or relationship can be referenced.