Hey everyone. Welcome to the activity solutions lecture. You were given two situations and were requested to identify the right option that focuses on adding value to your customer. Let's begin. Situation one. You are a sales manager of a mattress store.
A couple comes to your showroom to buy. They have a one year old baby. They do not have any knowledge of what mattress should they buy, that will be comfortable for them and for the baby. They ask you for an opinion as they believe your recommendations would be most appropriate. Which of the options would you choose? In this case, option one.
As a sales manager, you have to achieve a sales target of 200 mattresses to be sold of type x. Plus, if you sell those many mattresses, you also get a paid vacation. For an international holiday destination Wow. However, you know that the mattress of type x may be suitable for the couple, but may not be suitable for the baby. However, since you have to meet the sales target, you still recommend the mattress of type x and those customers buy that mattress. Option two, as a sales manager even though you have to achieve a sales target of selling 200 mattresses of type x, you still recommend a mattress that is suitable for the couple and the baby.
You think from the perspective of your customers and add value to help them make the right purchase decision. If you have chosen option one, that is probably the wrong decision. In this situation, how will you define value for your customer, the customer needs to buy a mattress that is suitable for the couple as well as the baby so that they can all get a sound sleep. However, your suggestion in option one is not suitable for the baby, you may achieve the sales target for that month. However your customers may not be happy with your suggestion and will probably never come back to your store. If you have chosen option two, that is the right decision.
Irrespective of the mounting pressure of sales target, you have recommended a mattress that is suitable for the couple and the baby. As a result, you have added value to your customer and they are now extremely happy. Three years later, the same family returns to your store to buy another mattress just for their baby who is now three year old. So now you have a returning customer who will not Go to the other competitors and will promote your product and your store to their friends and family to think about that situation too. You are running a consulting organization. Your client had recently hired your organizational services to document the standard operating procedures for their business process.
The contract is a fixed price contract and any additional service or change to the existing contract requested by the client will charge them additional amount of money 15 days 15 days after the work begins, the client realizes that they did not include three additional operating procedures that were to be written. The client is hesitant to discuss this additional requirement with you as he has maxed out his budget already. Through internal sources you come to know of this dilemma of you client, what would you do? option one, leave the situation as it is, it was client's job to identify all the standard operating procedures before work began and include them in the contract. Even if it takes just three additional hours to finish the additional task, you will not bother to discuss the requirement with the client option to speak to the client and inform him that this additional service will cost him more money.
He will speak to the client and let him know you are ready to help although as per the contractual agreement, the client will be required to pay additional amount for this change request. option three, speak to the client asked for the reason of missing the three slps and offer to do this work for free just as a one time help. Although this is not a practice that is recommended when you practice professional project management you Go the additional mile to understand clients issue and the possibility of missing to include the three slps. These additional slps would only lead to three hours of work for your team. So you gently offer this help to your client with a disclaimer that this has never been done in the past and is a one time arrangement. Which option did you choose?
If you chose option one, it is not adding value to the client. You know your client has some issue and you're letting him deal with the situation even if you have the ability to offer him the required help. Option two is adding value to the client no doubt. However, you also know that the client doesn't have any additional budget. So asking for more money for something that you can easily do at no cost will negate the value you are adding for the client You have chosen option three that will add immense value to your client. Although it is not a practice recommended when you're working as a professional project manager, you have gone the additional mile to understand your clients issue.
You help remove your clients roadblock at no additional cost. And you also gently let him know that this is done as a one time gesture. Thus, the client understands that you have gone the extra mile to help him these value adding steps for the client or for anyone generally go a long way. They also have a tendency to show up in a positive way, unexpectedly in the future. Well, that brings us to the end of this lecture. Thank you for attending.
See you in the next one.