Jumping ahead too quickly
My first action upon launching this activity for Display22 is to contact the project manager, Ernest Mann, who I already know from the pre-sales work. I am keen to have him use some of our advanced options in his products, even if these are not covered by Design22’s initial purchase of our software.
I take the opportunity of our first weekly meeting to broach the subject. He is a little reluctant, citing the load that his engineers already have to learn the basics of the tool. I insist a little, however, as I know that the advanced options aren’t trivial to use – I promise Ernest that I will cover these items without any extra charge in the technical training and will install the extra software temporarily, also without charge.
All of this is to no avail. The Display22 engineers don't look at the extra options and Ernest, rather than being grateful for my proactive behaviour, becomes extremely critical of our software and rather impatient with the support.
The problem? I neglected to engage with Ernest or his team properly and pushed my ideas on them before finding out about their real post-sales support needs. Furthermore, I focused all my efforts on one person, and alienated him too!
More about The Encounter Process:
- The Encounter Process top
- The Encounter is a Theory We Use
- Challenge example: it isn’t just about relationships – process matters too
- Challenge example: jumping ahead too quickly
- The Obstacle Course
- The Encounter Process explained
- Prepare step of the Encounter Process
- Engage step of the Encounter Process
- Do step of the Encounter Process
- Check step of the Encounter Process
- Follow Up step of the Encounter Process
- The Encounter Process in brief
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