Recently, in a sales session, we introduced the idea of having a sales team construct a sales story of their last major sale. We went from how the customer’s organization became aware of the product through how marketing, inside support to include engineering and of course sales participated. Most of us would relate it to building a customer journey map. The twist was that we did not attempt to capture the process in post-it-notes, judge or improve; we just enjoyed.
I equate this encounter to having a drink after work at the corner bar. Leadership took a hands-off approach and left meeting to the different sales teams. There was not anyone considered having more authority than the team leaders who already had a very admirable relationship within the team. Once, it was determined that all that was required was the story, the interaction between the team was very engaging.
What was the most interesting part to me was the feedback loops. They described in detail their conversations, use of literature and presentations. I was amazed in story form how the customers became real people in this setting.
Usually, when I have participated in creating user personas and customer journey maps, the beginning is fairly objective but soon decisions were made to “finish” them. This requires certain assumptions to be made that often came down to the senior person that had the least amount of actual customer contact.
The last half of the session, we asked around the room how others have had similar experiences and how they could add to the story. In this way, they related positive experiences instead of having a “boss” tell them what they should have done. I found it to be a great and rewarding experience.
I wonder if the lesson will be remembered.