Jeff, one of my regular clients, came to me to jump-start his team. “Even when I have time to talk with my team face-to-face, they only give me lip service or blank looks,” he said. “I was hoping you could help me stir the pot so we can finish the year with a bang.”

Jeff was a good manager trapped in a labyrinth of accountability. He wasn’t getting the results from his team because they’d gone down the path of least resistance. I suggested that he should:

*  Initiate meaningful dialogue with his team, setting up areas of responsibility, creating smart criteria for specific performance standards.

*  Remember that all members of his team are individuals with motivations as different as their work styles.

* Respect and respond to those differences so his team performs above and beyond expectations.

*  Understand his employees like he understands his customers.

*  Find out what each member of his team truly values.

*  Create a follow-up system to hold his people accountable.

You’ll lose your best team members if you don’t find ways for them to feel successful and accomplished in their positions. The best way to understand what people value is to engage. Talk with your employees, and really listen to what success means to them.
 

Value is in the eye of the beholder. But before you can sell value, you must answer the question, “What does my customer value?” Literally asking that question can result in vague replies, since customers themselves can’t always define exactly what they mean by “value.” Be more specific with this comparison question:

“How important is price compared to service? Compared to quality? Compared to availability? Compared to ‘time to market’?”

You need to help customers figure out whether they can reach their goals using the tools they have now. This question can get the ball rolling:

“Where do you see market opportunities to pursue and obstacles to overcome?”

You’ll have provided a valuable service by motivating them to answer that question, no matter what their answer might be.

Assessing the competition periodically is a matter of survival for any business. Here’s a question to help your customer figure out whether he can get where he wants to be with what he already has:

“How do you differentiate yourself from your competitors?”

Questions about this and other aspects of business compel your customer to articulate what he’s doing or should be doing in order to define his success and what he needs to do to make it happen (while you, of course, are planting the seed that you’re part of the solution!)

For many people, value boils down to quality of service. This question helps you cut to the chase:

“Can you give me an example of when your standards for quality were not met?”

This question compels your customer to define exactly what “quality” means to him, so you’ll be able to zero in on a solution tailored to his needs.