A fire alarm forced a customer success manager to ditch their slides and actually talk with a client. The unscripted conversation revealed what the customer really needed, and they later said it was the first time a vendor actually listened. Bob London argues that making people feel heard matters more than any presentation.
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So I worked with a customer success team that was very used to doing quarterly business reviews that were the typical kind of showing up with a lot of slides, tight agenda, no real room for the customer to kind of open up about what was important to them. One of the account managers, she came back with a story about how she went to the customer's site, went on site, traveled to the customer's building, and they were going to have a meeting. She had slides all prepared. She was all set, ready to go, and there was a fire alarm. And so they had to leave the building and they went to a nearby restaurant that the customer suggested. And they were sitting there and so they did something crazy. They talked. They just had a two-way conversation, she and the customer. And she said to me, she felt like she got to know the customer's needs so much better. And her favorite part was at the end, the customer said, this is so incredible. It's one of the first times I can ever remember meeting with a vendor about what's really important to my company. And so I think we have to remember it's the old Maya Angelou quote, people don't always remember what you said, but they'll remember how you made them feel. So if you make them feel like you're different from other companies, other vendors, and their sort of standard, no one ever questioned it approach, then they will remember you and they will want to work with you more because you're building trust with them. So it was a great story that happened by accident because of a fire alarm, but worked out really well.
