What Are Your Always Actions?

I passed through a London hospital recently. I noted with interest what they referred to as;

“our Always campaign – Four small actions which make a big difference to your hospital stay:

We will introduce ourselves and our team
We will talk with you not over you
We will call you by your preferred name
We will answer all of your questions – or find someone who can”

Whilst their quartet may not appear groundbreaking customer service statements – and easily incite criticism for ignoring medical effectiveness – they are at least emblems of intent to standardise and improve.

I instantly thought upon a similar foursome that could be applied to any sales process.

I will provide a concise description of your current situation
I will draw a clear picture of where I can help you go
I will answer all of anyone’s questions – or find someone who can
I will ensure everything is in place to make your plans succeed

(As you can see, I do like their third one!)

There’s plenty of scope to alter and add. For example, I’m sure you will also make/save plenty of money/time/effort.

In the same way as said infirmary took feedback from former inmates, you too can uncover what about your approach has previously pushed the buying buttons. And endeavour to spread these as best-practice across all bids.

I can also imagine some of the salesteams I’ve encountered wanting to say things like ‘I will mercilessly slate my competition’, ‘I will always discount heavily at the death to win’, or even ‘I will remorselessly hound my prospect on the phone in the final week of each quarter’.

None an Always Action I’d ever recommend. This may suggest that if you can’t share your ‘actions’ with a prospect, then they shouldn’t exist. Yet that’d be jettisoning such winners as ‘I will make my compelling case with the CEO’. Still. Refine with care.

It’s a discipline with legs that would make a worthy addition to any sales process.