Professional should avoid falling in love with their own ideas. Professionals have to be flexible enough to incorporate client’s thoughts and desires into their solutions. Holding too tightly to a beloved idea causes inflexibility. That inflexibility prevents professionals from the critical activity of listening which is essential to crafting a product or service solution that a client will want to buy.
Years ago, I worked with an investment manager, Rich. He managed a team of financial professionals that offered financial products and frequently partnered together on cross promotional opportunities. Rich had a talented team and was a great manager, except for one critical flaw; he loved his ideas too much. He had a vast knowledge of his product suite and wasn’t shy about sharing his thoughts on what financial products would generate the best return for clients.
The problem was that when Rich was presented with a solution that one of his financial advisors had outlined with a client, Rich would heartily reorganize the products for the “best solution”. He only wanted to know their financial objectives and position. He never questioned why a client might have selected a certain product solution. Even when one of his team would protest the changes based on some information or feedback they had gleaned from the client, Rich would hold fast. His one liner was, “They’ll thank you when they see how we’ve improved it."
This forced Rich’s financial professionals into a tough spot. They would return to a client with a proposal that didn’t match what they had outlined. Essentially, Rich was forcing his team into restructuring a client’s vision.
Rich’s team was a perennially underachieving group. The sad part is that it wasn’t necessary. Rich and his team had enough talent to produce world-class results. But due to Rich steadfastly holding to his own ideas, his team was fighting a losing battle of trying to ram their thoughts down clients’ throats.
Rich’s love of his ideas caused friction within his group because he poisoned how his team dealt with clients. Client’s like their ideas more than they will ever like yours. If a client doesn’t see the solution as “better”, then it’s worse. Craft a solution around the client’s vision. Our great solutions aren’t going to ring true with clients unless it’s molded to align with their ideas.