Story behind the meeting:
Through a referral the team has set up an introductory “pitch” meeting with Barbara — the newly promoted LOB President. We’re not pitching a specific project, but looking for a chance to open the door to a new division where we don’t yet have a presence. Barbara is a rising star in the company, with ambitions to become CEO. She’s been brought in from a different business unit to turn around a division facing major challenges.
What’s happening in the Consulting team’s world:
Our main “bread and butter” client has just left the company and we’re scrambling to make new connections. The team is under tremendous pressure to make quota and needs to engage a new client to make up for that lost revenue. We see this as a way to get a foothold in this organization and are hoping we can push something through quickly.
What’s happening in Barbara’s world:
This would not be made explicit but is background for us to figure out what we want to reveal through cues and clues before and during the conversation.
This would not be made explicit but is background for us to figure out what we want to reveal through cues and clues before and during the conversation.
She has major challenges ahead and wants advice to help develop her strategy around M&A, business model, driving efficiencies, org structure, etc.
The recession has slammed the industry. Barbara has to make her organization more efficient, reduce the layers of management. She also wants to streamline the sales organization—replacing sales people with technology so the company can sell directly to doctors rather than through high-priced sales people.
One area of vulnerability is she doesn’t have experience in the prescription drug business and admits she may have blind spots. “But I’m comfortable making decisions in a time of ambiguity.”
She needs a growth strategy, not sure she’s getting the truth from her people. She has some controversial ideas, some colleagues in the organization are jealous that she got the job instead of their other colleagues who had “grown up” in Pharma.
Barbara is skeptical about what she can learn from this Consultant but agrees to the meeting. She’s annoyed by consultants but sees them as a necessary evil. She feels a little vulnerable in her new role because she’s new to the Pharma industry. She knows she’s in the hot seat so there’s not a lot of room for error.
She’s already frustrated by the slow-moving bureaucracy at her company in getting things done, especially with IT to support some of her growth initiatives. She has some big, bold ideas and wants to prototype them, doesn’t want to design programs by committee. She wants a partner who understands her action-oriented style and can keep pace with her, and get results.
The Action
We’ve done our research, know our stuff and go in to pitch our capabilities. We make a technically right, but empathically wrong, presentation. We fail to tune into her needs, get under what’s really on her mind, and don’t give her an opportunity to express her needs.
For a moment she wants to engage, but then gives up when she sees we are not listening, just talking. Our team has a clear opportunity here but we make a series of empathy mistakes along the way because we’ve failed to take off our own shoes.
