“Even during times of economic downturns, products that provide innovations that meet customers’ changing needs will prevail in the marketplace.  Innovation keeps companies relevant to consumers.”  So says The Three-Dimensional Leader: Negotiating Your Mission, Resources and Context, which also lays out four ingredients to bring out a team’s creative potential.  

Innovation requires 1) conception, 2) coordination 3) synergy from diversity, and 4) getting the customer’s view.  

Conception: 

No one thinks out of the box apart from imagination. Imagination envisions how to make the theoretical practical. It sees what others don’t and organizes structure out of ambiguity.  It’s the foundation for connecting the dots to accomplish innovation. 

Coordination: 

Desirable leadership models and gets teams to communicate, cooperate, and coordinate. This triple-c synergy is necessary for openly sharing ideas and piggy backing off those most useful to the current project.  Organizations obtain synergy when all communicate, cooperate, and coordinate.

Cooperative Synergy:

Synergy is achieved when the coordinated output of the parts is greater than their mathematical sum, so 1 + 3 = 6. Synergy means that one leader and three followers who operate in sync will accomplish the work of six people who work individually in an uncoordinated way.  Synergy requires synthesizing various perspectives and viewpoints. 

The Customer’s View:

The reason teams innovate is to arrive at the next generation of products and service-delivery that customers value and will choose.  

One-dimensional leaders are preoccupied with power, and stifle creativity by heavy handedly imposing their limited views.  I-D’s never let you do what they don’t know.  2-D’s don’t embrace innovation because they fail to see its relevance within the context. 3-D’s facilitate people to achieve innovation that customers value.  Your creative team may be working for you now, but you must lead them three-dimensionally.

The Three-Dimensional Leader: Negotiating Your Mission, Resources and Context provides an interview of Bill Dake, the architect of the Stewart’s convenience store chain that achieves $1 billion in annual sales. Dake emphasizes the relational aspects of selling through what he calls the “GREAT” sale strategy.  GREAT stands for greet, read, evaluate, associate and try.  He trains store partners (sales staff) that selling is achieved by striving to meet customers’ needs by doing the following: 

1. Greet the customer by acknowledging them with eye contact, a nod, and a smile Greetings include speaking with the customer about the weather, a local, regional, or national event, etc... 
2. Read the customer to determine if he or she is a “rusher,” a “shopper,” or a “regular.” Do not detain a rusher, but engage shoppers and regulars.
3. Evaluate effectiveness by determining the ROI on sales from your efforts, such as the gross profit (GP) from products.  Evaluate if marketing and discounts achieve multipliers (increased sales of non-discounted items), and if a “tail,” or residual increased sales continue after items no longer are discounted.  
4. Associate selling achieves up-selling by reminding customers of products they may have forgotten that go well together with their primary purchases. So recommend milk or orange juice to a customer buying eggs, a hard roll to one who requests chili, and suggest dry gas to a gas buyer. 
5. Try Again is a requirement for anyone experiencing frequent rejections. So for each successive customer keep asking questions, offering samples and making suggestions.

These techniques not only apply to in-store shoppers. These steps can be followed during any sales meetings.  Frequent attempts and the deployment of multiple strategies will lead to “GREAT” sales.  Why not respond to this blog and share your favorite sales strategy?