CEO National Coaching Register  - Case Histories Blindspots

These are abbreviated conversations - from some hours of discussion - to illustrate key decision moments. Based on real cases with changed detail to preserve confidentiality

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Its better to buy assets than to rent’

The MD said ‘All my life I’ve said its better to build assets than rent. I want to ‘buy and build’ 3 regional logistics centres. The board just keep on talking about the ‘short term profit drop and this years dividend to shareholders’ We are at crisis now because it’s a matter of principle to me. Its my duty is to do the right thing for the shareholders long term interests not just to deal with their short term demands’

I don’t believe the present ‘flavour of the month’ outsourcing of warehousing and haulage will last. The major operators can soon hold us to ransom and prices will leap. If we buy 3 plots of land around UK and build our own warehouses and have our own vehicle fleets, no one can threaten us with sudden price rises. We can get 3 sites built for £6m and running costs will be £1.7m pa. My board just say ‘yes but we cant afford it’ We can though; we have £4m profits on £80m sales. The board say that as we are only spending £660k pa outsourcing our logistics, I am being too cautious and my plans will cut profits and dividend by over 20% for several years. They say it would make us vulnerable to a foreign group who have bought 15% of our shares and say they want to buy us out.  But those are short term possibilities. The logistics threat is a fact. And it’s a fact that buying assets is better than renting. What do I have to do to get them to see the logic?

The coach uses carefully sculptured words here in a format that is known as an 'intervention'  Frequently it is just a one sentence question

MD.  There are strong rumours that that the logistics sector is consolidating. The big players are undercutting and pushing out smaller logistics companies, and soon there will just be about 4 main players. Then, like the supermarkets, they can monopolistically put pressure on their customers who will have no choice to go elsewhere. There was a big press article on it about a year ago. That really fitted my views that we ought to buy to be safe and have assets we owned, not rent we had to pay

Coach  intervention

The MD shrugs his shoulders’ ‘ I don’t know’ He phones his Ops Director and talks for 5 minutes then says ‘ I said to the Ops Director that I didn’t know what he just told me and why hadn’t he told me that before. He said I was never in listening mode before ’ …….He looks thoughtful ……..

He speaks slowly as he thinks ‘I didn’t realise that. It does change my case somewhat …….. But it doesn’t alter the principle that owning assets is better than renting

Coach intervention

MD promptly. ‘My board say  ‘That’s all very well but we cant afford to spend £6m that we haven’t got and would have to borrow; and to cut profits and dividends by more than 20% as well’ …… He looks thoughtful again …..  ‘Taking account of what the Ops Director told me, it does weaken my case …… then the profit cut gets more relevant ………….

He looks at the coach ……. ‘It doesn’t  stack up so well does it?’  ……

Coach intervention’

MD ‘ I can talk to the Ops Director at length because this is really new information that maybe I have been blind to because of my wish to get the asset base. If he’s right it does change my case doesn’t it?  Can’t believe how I took that article to be right and didn’t check any further. Just got fixated by it and went for the asset protection which has always been a dream.’

The next week he called the Coach. ‘I have dropped the idea and the board are near ecstatic! When I talked to the Ops Director he said no one had been able to get me to look outside my own head. He said ‘You just haven’t been in listening mode Bill. This ‘coach’ must have had a really tough ‘Kings Messenger’ job to have got you to see sense’ I said  ‘No.  He just asked very fair questions that I wish my board had asked me!’  

‘I have no sales experience or aptitude to sell’

The new MD had been in office for 6 months. ‘My boss the previous MD was killed in a car crash and they made me MD overnight. Now 6 months later they say I must lead sales like the MD did or the sales decline will continue and we’ll go into loss. But I am an accountant.  I have no sales experience or aptitude to sell. I used to go with the MD on all sales calls because the product is very financially technical and only I and the MD really can explain that. But he did the selling and I just did the technical stuff.  Now I could’nt dare lead sales meetings myself: and the Account Director says she can only do client management after we had sold in because she does not have the technical ability to do selling in. She’s right but that means we’re stuck because I simply can’t lead the selling myself. I have no sales experience or aptitude to sell. I wonder if I should train the Account Director up but it would take at least 6 months and the board say we wont survive that long if I don’t get out and meet the customers myself. But I just cant do it!’

The coach uses carefully sculptured words here in a format that is known as an 'intervention'  Frequently it is just a one sentence question

MD ‘ We get about 3 enquiries a week. But I can’t lead that sales process. I don’t know what to say. The MD did that and was brilliant’. He would phone them and fix to meet them. What was brilliant was that when we met them he didn’t try to sell to them   Instead, he said to me “All I do is ask them what they want, then tell them how the service can deliver that. I copy how they speak too. If they’re noisy and fast talking I am. If they’re quiet and slow talking I am. You know now you have to do the same and you do it. So then I hand over to you for the technical wizardry!” 

So we would both echo how they spoke and how it would give them what they wanted and I would then just fill in the technical detail. We used to get a lot of sales like that. But without his sales skill we’re dead'

Coach intervention

MD ‘When we met a potential customer the MD would be quite quiet and say very little. Eventually he would say this; its engraved on my mind because it was always the same. “Mr Jones. Would you like to start the meeting by telling us what issues you are trying to resolve and what you want to know about our system that can help you?” It was amazing from that point. Off they would go to tell us all their details and problems and ideas - often very confidential. Bill would just note down each point. Then when they finished he would match very casually how they spoke and say ‘Can I replay what you have told me to see if I have grasped the points correctly’. Then he would read from his notes -  using their precise words and sounding just like them!  But they never saw it! Often they would have said what they wanted our system to do – and he would just use their own words back to them - changing a few words so it confirmed our system WOULD deliver what they said they wanted it to! The result was always the same – and that was his gift. He just captured them in some way I could never understand and he said he didn’t know why either. But people just seemed to fall in love and completely trust him.. It was like magic and you could see the atmosphere change from that moment. Then he would hand over for me to handle all the technical queries. Our system is market leading actually so my bit was easy after he had set it all up.

Coach intervention 

MD. ‘‘Can I replay what you have told me to see if I have grasped the points correctly’. He replays the coach’s words and speaks in the slow measured way the coach used. He explains how the system can deliver the features they need – using the coach’s precise words most of the time. Its quite silly really isn’t it  - but it got orders like you can’t believe’

He finishes, laughs and looks expectantly at the coach

Coach intervention

MD sits quietly thinking ……. and then nods …… ‘You mean that if  I just did what he did, they wouldn’t know the difference? …..

Coach intervention

MD. ‘You mean it was the process that worked not they way he said it - which I thought I could never be able to do?’

Coach intervention 

MD. ‘I always thought it was him …….. If it was the process ………..’  (he is silent for several minutes thinking)  …..  I could try it out then …It would be worth trying ……’

He looks at the coach speculatively  ‘I think I could try it out. The board would be pleased …. and I do know all the follow up stuff after I said that opening MD stuff ……

I don’t feel bad trying this now I see that it was probably the process he used and I know that back to front. I thought it was his personality. But it was easy to just copy him I must admit……How could I have not seen that! I’ll give it a try’

Two weeks later, the MD called the coach. His excitement oozed down the phone. ‘Its working! Its so easy! I just play his part first them switch to my stuff. I’ve got 2 sales already. That’s more than we got in 3 months! ‘

He called 5 weeks later ‘Got 5 sales so far worth £1.2m.  If we keep this up we will get at least £9m new sales this year. That a complete turnaround from just one silly misunderstanding! I cant believe how easy it is to sell!’

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