The Value of Cultural Alignment in Solutions Sales

The Value of Cultural Alignment in Solutions Sales

Successful workforce management service suppliers are trusted to represent and reinforce the client’s values and business culture. A weak cultural alignment can negatively affect employee retention and customer satisfaction. 

Here’s how one workforce management services supplier overcame a second-place (but solid) technical score by focusing on culture in their proposal orals stage.

The supplier team had made it through the RFP process and was down-selected for the final round of presentations to become a workforce management partner for a major airline. The only remaining competitor was the stronger technical choice. But the supplier had a closer alignment with the client’s business culture.

The team knew they wouldn’t win on their technical solution alone. So they decided to focus more directly on helping the client get to know what it would be like to work together. The supplier team had the experience, the relationships, and a great story to tell on a human level. And they already – genuinely – shared the same energy and values as the client. They channeled that energy into the final presentation.

The first choice the supplier team made was to make sure they brought the right people to the room. One (only) representative from sales. Legal consult, operations, support, and technical folks the client staff would be working with day-to-day. And the top business executive. 

The team was direct and compliant with the client’s instructions for the meeting. Their deck checked all the boxes while lightly incorporating the spirit of their (and the client’s) brand. Professional, congenial. And lighthearted.

The supplier team members flew in from around the country. They traveled on the client’s airline (which was easy, because it was already their company’s preferred corporate airline). At the various airports, each team member was asked to chat and snap a picture with someone from the airline who had made a difference for them – and to note their name. Each team member then emailed their picture to the supplier’s Sales Enablement lead to drop in to the team introduction page of the deck and return the deck to the team. 

At the meeting, the supplier team members came out from behind the sales curtain and engaged as their authentic, business casual, professional, partnership-focused selves. On that intro slide of the presentation, with their airline buddy pictures displayed, the team introduced themselves and their airline acquaintances and shared an experience that demonstrated their knowledge and appreciation of the airline and its culture. 

The team was transparent about their technology relative to the competition and described how it would nonetheless do the job. The team answered all questions directly. No scripts. Limited talking points. From experience and as if talking with a good friend whose interests and success come first. The meeting was loose, professional, and fun. The cultural alignment came through naturally – not through mission and values statements – but by just being themselves.

In the end, the supplier company earned the business by being authentic and staying focused on what was most important to the client. When notified of the award, the client commented that the technical solution was good. But that it was the “fit” that had taken them across the finish line.

Case

Study

More Case Studies

© 2024 Alberts & Gabriel LLC - All rights reserved

© 2024 Alberts & Gabriel LLC - All rights reserved

© 2024 Alberts & Gabriel LLC - All rights reserved

© 2024 Alberts & Gabriel LLC - All rights reserved