At the request of. In the past. посте. I briefly mentioned the futility of proposing to a married woman who doesn’t know you. First, I want to add that there’s no point in making such a proposal even if you don’t know her well. Now, let me continue about business.
The task is to win over a client from an existing supplier and offer your services. How is this accomplished? The algorithm is simple:
- Understand why this particular supplier was chosen (both explicit and implicit motives). At the same time, avoid asking “why” questions, and try to grasp this in a way that prevents the client from starting to sell themselves on the supplier they have already chosen.
- Identify the reasons for the specific dissatisfaction with the current supplier — there are always some.
- Encourage the client to talk about the supplier’s shortcomings, to complain about them, and to express how great it would be if those shortcomings didn’t exist.
- Understanding the client and nodding with sad eyes, horrified at how this could even be possible. (The tactic of a mistress listening to her married lover’s complaints about his wife)
- To address the client’s needs identified in point 1, either fulfill them yourself or diminish their value. You need to be especially cautious if it’s clear that someone else is involved and/or there are close personal connections. (This means you should offer the same thing and seek out more personal and stronger connections.)
Such methods work very well when changing suppliers of ongoing services: telecommunications providers, office supplies, household chemicals, printing services, etc.
However, if there is an opportunity to proceed as described below, it will be truly fantastic. The second method is especially effective when the existing supplier is internal and/or when the supplies are not consistent.
- Praise the client for their decision and choice. Provide examples that support your praise.
- It’s worth noting that everything is fine, but without certain key accompanying services, the main service loses its significance.
- Suggest analyzing the client’s needs and providing those additional services.
- It should be noted and logically demonstrated that providing these additional services by the existing provider will lead to a conflict of interest.
- We can also talk about putting all your eggs in one basket. (This and all the previous points should be presented in a way that allows the client to come to the necessary conclusions on their own, rather than us overwhelming them.)
- Close the deal.
- To either squeeze out the existing supplier quietly or simply take a large portion of the money for yourself, putting the current supplier in a position of dependence and negotiating a partnership with sweet talk.
It’s all a bit vague, so let me illustrate with an example.
For example, a recruiting company faces the situation where recruitment is conducted either by in-house HR personnel or by an existing recruiter. Almost certainly, no one thinks about evaluating the job profile for which a candidate is being sought, and they are satisfied only with the application, which, by the way, often contains requests like “bring me a Little Scarlet Flower.” However, it is essential to create a job profile. This essentially involves interviewing three people connected to the position, such as: a manager, a subordinate, and an HR representative. The interviewing process should be clever, avoiding obvious and pointless questions like “what kind of work experience should he have.”
Additionally, candidates selected by recruiters should also be assessed for their fit with the profile. This can be done through clever questioning and interviewing. Since there are no perfect candidates, it’s a good idea to immediately suggest “areas for growth” for each candidate and evaluate the investments needed for their training or upskilling, while also offering such training.
Of course, it’s not advisable to entrust such evaluations to the current recruiter, as they are eager to “close” the client as quickly as possible and won’t take the time for an additional level of assessment or selection. And if they do, they’ll likely present the results in their favor.
If recruitment is conducted internally within the company, one can argue that it’s impossible to assess a Chinese translator without knowing Chinese, and that an internal recruiter is unlikely to have the necessary level of competence for effective recruitment with financial guarantees (which an internal recruiter cannot provide), rather than wasting the time of a specialized manager on reviewing submitted resumes. Additionally, you could ask for an evaluation of the job application and suggest a “shadow” role, where you assess the market value and availability of a candidate for a small fee or for free, while subtly hinting that you already have such a candidate (if you actually do).
Through such activities, of course, if you have managed to find common ground with the company and they perceive everything you can offer as a necessity, much like the need for a fire extinguisher in case of a fire, you will gradually be able to “rub out” the existing recruiter and take the initiative for yourself.
How to become a “fire extinguisher”? Make it clear to the decision-makers that even a week of downtime without, say, a department head leads to a loss of money greater than the costs of recruiting, since the entire department is not functioning, and that’s a fire!
If I’m given a problem from a different field, I’ll try to demonstrate the application of both methods with a specific example.