Order taker mindset will go the way of the dinosaurs. For starters, order takers have difficulty adapting to the challenges presented to them, courtesy of the Internet of Things (IoT) business ecosystem.
Changing order taker mindset assaults ingrained professional habits developed within legacy business models.
Are you an order taker or an innovator? Consider whether there is any strategic value in merely recording and fulfilling what the customer “thinks” they want.
- First, evaluate the cataclysmic impact of the tsunami of data on your own business development efforts in the past three years. Are you data-driven?
- Then, consider how business models are evolving as workforce hiring strategy and processes become more data-driven. Are you collaborative?
- Finally, think long and hard about how client expectations have morphed in response to the pervasive influence of industrial IoT tech advances. Do you support their businesses even when you are not selling or engineering anything for them?
That tact characterizes yesterday’s transactional sales, engineering and sales engineering order taker mindset. Transactional mindset does not catalyze customer loyalty and customer retention in the industrial Internet of Things business ecosystem.
After all, even the best online customized ordering interfaces are the result of a lot of complex, customer face-to-face research, development and testing. That level of design integration traverses the sales-engineering interface®.
As a result, there are no limits to the level of personalization and customization that clients expect to experience when doing business with you and your company. Why provide them anything less?
Order taker mindset is not a collaborative dialogue when fulfillment is the desired outcome. ~ Babette Ten Haken
Even on repeat business. Why? Because technology has changed since the last time that order was placed. So has the client’s context, which is discoverable if you make it a habit to make the effort.
As a result, customers expect better and better products and experiences each time they work with you. Delivering that level of professional synergy is what keeps them loyal and retained.
Fulfilling orders is not the same as designing in response to the industrial IoT customer’s voice. Understanding the difference impacts customer experience, success, loyalty and customer retention.
If you are a sales, engineering, IT or sales engineering professional of worth, then you are proactive and anticipatory of What’s Next? on behalf of clients. You are ready, willing and able to meet the challenges of doing business in the digital age.
You are innovators instead of order takers.
As a result, you continuously upgrade your professional development instead of waiting for employers to subsidize you. In addition, you are life-long learners, curious about how things work and what ideas from other industries are adaptable to your own industry.
Innovator mindset is all about cross-pollinating the insights you provide to clients. They count on you to have their backs. In order to support them, you may not have all the answers. However, your network of resources runs deep and you are eager to discover available options.
Do I have your attention? Do you have order taker mindset? Or are you a professional of worth who represents an innovative resource providing enduring and valuable business outcomes on behalf of clients?
Let’s explore together. To Do: Read these additional articles on why order taker mindset will become IIoT business extinct. Then let me know what you think.
Are you an order taker or an innovator? https://babettetenhaken.com/2009/04/18/are-you-an-order-taker-or-an-innovator/ via @babettetenhaken
Order-Taker or Innovator? https://babettetenhaken.com/2014/06/05/7913/ via @babettetenhaken
Order Taker Managers can’t Lead https://babettetenhaken.com/2015/07/10/order-taker-manager-cant-lead/ via @babettetenhaken
Channel Order Takers or Innovators? https://babettetenhaken.com/2015/07/08/channel-order-takers-or-innovators/ via @babettetenhaken
Babette Ten Haken is a catalyst, corporate strategist and facilitator. She writes, speaks, consults and coaches about how cross-functional team collaboration revolutionizes the industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) value chain for customer loyalty, customer success and customer retention. Her One Millimeter Mindset™ programs draw from her background as a scientist, sales professional, enterprise-level facilitator, Six Sigma Green Belt and certified DFSS Voice of the Customer practitioner. Babette’s playbook of technical / non-technical collaboration hacks, Do YOU Mean Business? is available on Amazon. Visit the Free Resources section of her website for more tools.
Image author: Ion Chiosea Image source: Fotolia
Leave a Reply